Tag Archives: Gardening

Review: Song of the Court by Katy Farina

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,
Song of the Court by Katy Farina

Song of the Court
Katy Farina
Union Square Books
Published October 6, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Song of the Court

A charming fairy tale—told in graphic novel style—about two unlikely friends who encourage each other to pursue their dreams.

In order to buy seeds for her beautiful garden, Arietta plans to sell her treasured family violin. Then music-loving Princess Cassia spots Arietta with the instrument and excitedly asks her to perform at her upcoming birthday party. What the Princess doesn’t realize is, Arietta can’t play! Too ashamed to tell Cassia the truth, Arietta sets out to learn a special song for the occasion. But as Arietta’s musical passion blossoms, her devotion to her garden fades . . . and her trees and flowers begin to die. Will she be able to master the tune in time for Cassia’s celebration—and save the garden, too?

My Review

One of my big problems this summer has been keeping enough books around the house for my littlest to read. She’s aging out of chapter books and just tiptoeing into middle grade. Graphic novels have worked out as a great format for her right now. I’m able to read a lot of things first before handing them over to her. I’ve also got a backlog of titles that I’ve read that I think she’d be interested in. I’ll probably do a list soon that corrals some of her favorites together, since I’m sure a lot of families face similar challenges as their readers age up into middle grade.

Song of the Court was a lucky find for us at our local library. We have two cats, and my littlest loves them, so I’m always on the lookout for stories with a cute cat on the cover. (I haven’t been able to sell her on the Warriors series yet, but it’s early.)

The story follows a cat named Arietta, who cares for her family’s garden. She sells flowers and fruit at the weekly market to make a living. At the opening of the book, money is short, so Arietta decides to pawn her grandfather’s violin. On the way to the music store, she meets Princess Cassia, who is looking for a musician to perform at her birthday party. Arietta gets so flustered at meeting the princess that before she knows it, she’s promising to play a song at the party.

Fortunately for Arietta, her best friend Emily is an accomplished violinist, and she offers to teach her to play a special song. Arietta finds great joy in learning to play the violin, and soon her garden wilts because she spends so much time playing music. She wants to keep playing music, but she doesn’t want to give up the garden. How can she balance both?

The storytelling is so gentle and upbeat. I love that Arietta wrestles with this problem of passion versus responsibilities. Ultimately she learns that a balanced, happy life has room for both.

Conclusion

What a sweet story! This book is perfect for readers aging out of chapter books into middle grade literature. A couple of the names were hard for my seven-year-old to decode, but that was an easy bridge to cross. If you liked the Cat and Cat Adventures series by Susie Yi or the Tea Dragon Society series by K. O’Neill, then put Song of the Court on your reading list.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my local public library. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Peach Thief by Linda Joan Smith

Book Review and Content, Historical, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

The Peach Thief
Linda Joan Smith
Publisher
Published March 4, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Peach Thief

This shimmering middle-grade debut set in 1850s Lancashire, England, explores longing, belonging, and the courage it takes to find your place—and bloom.

The night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermore’s garden wall, she wants only to steal a peach—the best thing she’s ever tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when she’s caught by the earl’s head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, she’ll have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams . . . maybe even peaches.

She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her “Brownie,” and makes her skin prickle. At the same time, the gruff head gardener himself is teaching lowly Scilla to make things grow, and she’s cultivating hope with every seed she plants. But as the seasons unfurl, her loyalties become divided, and her secret grows harder to keep. How far will she go to have a home at last?

Beautifully crafted with classic middle-grade themes of fate and ambition, identity and personal responsibility, this stunning debut features brisk pacing, crackling dialogue, and deep insight into what makes a garden thrive—and a heart and mind flourish.

My Review

This book really got to me. From early on, I really didn’t like a certain character. It wasn’t clear to me until late in the book whether this dislike would be at odds with the story’s outcome. There’s a pretty intense scene very late in the book, and I couldn’t see how Scilla would come through it unscathed, so reading that scene was a pretty serious roller coaster ride for me. I was sweating for Scilla for sure.

I feel like the foreshadowing for the outcome of the book is really nicely done. Thinking back through the story, Scilla overlooked some things because she was so focused on keeping the secret of her identity and background. At the time, I think I was so focused on her experience that I didn’t often read the room, so to speak, and look at what was happening in the story beyond her experience.

While this is a completely different story, some elements– namely the gardening– reminded me a bit of The Secret Garden. I could see this story appealing to readers who are interested in a story like that one but perhaps want a book told in a more modern style.

All in all, The Peach Thief was a really engaging read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content/Nudity
References to kissing (off-scene). Scilla has a crush on a boy who works in the garden. Other workers burst in on Scilla just after she has showered. She turns her back to them, trying to shield her body from view.

Spiritual Content
References to characters attending church.

Violent Content
References to racist, misogynist, and classist practices, rules, and beliefs of the time. Scilla breaks into the garden in search of food and accidentally destroys a tree. Two boys dump Scilla into a barrel filled with water and manure as part of an initiation into working in the garden. A woman treats a servant cruelly after it appears she made a mistake. Allusion to child abuse (confinement in a locked chest, withholding food) in the workhouses. Scilla breaks into a greenhouse looking for something she left behind. A character charms and manipulates others, including Scilla, using a secret to coerce her. Scilla and another character steal produce from the Earl’s garden. At one point, a character purposefully destroys produce in storage.

Drug Content
Scilla smells cigar smoke from another worker.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

A Bit of Earth
Karuna Riazi
Greenwillow Books
Published March 14, 2023

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About A Bit of Earth

Maria Latif is used to not having a space of her own. But what happens when she feels the sudden urge to put down roots in the most unexpected of places?

Growing up in Pakistan, Maria Latif has been bounced between reluctant relatives for as long as she can remember–first because of her parents’ constant travel, and then because of their deaths. Maria has always been a difficult child, and it never takes long for her guardians to tire of her. So when old friends of her parents offer to “give her a better life” in the United States, Maria is shipped to a host family across the world.

When Maria arrives on Long Island, things are not quite what she was expecting. Mr. Clayborne has left on an extended business trip, Mrs. Clayborne seems emotionally fraught, and inexplicable things keep happening in the Claybornes’ sprawling house. And then Maria finds a locked gate to an off-limits garden. Since she’s never been good at following rules, Maria decides to investigate and discovers something she never thought she’d find: a place where she feels at home.

With a prickly main character, a sullen boy, two friendly allies, and a locked garden, A BIT OF EARTH is a reimagining of THE SECRET GARDEN.

My Review

I probably say this every time, but I feel like it’s always a little bit of a risk to read a reimagined version of a childhood favorite story. One of the reasons I was excited about this is that it centers on a girl from Pakistan with an inclusive cast.

I loved the way this book highlighted and connected Maria’s rigidity and contrariness with her grief and loneliness. This is present in the original story, too, but I loved the way the author brought those parts of Maria to the page. I felt like I understood Maria’s character and her heart in a way that I’m not sure I ever understood the main character from the original.

Another fantastic but unexpected element of the story for me was in the relationship between Maria and Lyndsay. She’s the second wife of Mr. Clayborne, the wealthy couple who has taken Maria in. Not only does Maria find a way to bring life back into the neglected garden, but she also helps Lyndsay’s courage to blossom again. I loved the way the story captured that transformation and celebrated the relationship between those two girls.

Readers who enjoy reimagined stories will like this one. I think readers looking for realistic fiction about a lonely girl and the way that gardening helps her find herself again will also love this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Maria is from Pakistan. Additional characters are Desi, too.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Maria attends a Milaad, which she tells Lyndsay is a religious celebration.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of A BIT OF EARTH in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Ophelia After All
Racquel Marie
Feiwel & Friends
Published February 8, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Ophelia After All

A teen girl navigates friendship drama, the end of high school, and discovering her queerness in Ophelia After All, a hilarious and heartfelt contemporary YA debut by author Racquel Marie.

Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys – way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn’t change, even if she wanted to.

So when she finds herself thinking more about cute, quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of a perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, seeds of doubt take root in Ophelia’s firm image of herself. Add to that the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her once-solid friend group, and things are spiraling a little out of control. But the course of love–and sexuality–never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she’s always imagined or upending everyone’s expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all.

My Review

I don’t think I’ve ever read a debut so wise as this one. While Ophelia is herself a romantic, her story doesn’t truly center around a romantic relationship. It explores romantic feelings– both hers and some of her friends’. But the story truly shines as one of self-discovery. Ophelia wrestles with her own expectations for herself and the challenges of navigating close relationships as those expectations or feelings change.

Ophelia has a large and loud friend group, but the relationships aren’t all equally shared. Not only did this feel very real to me, because it’s hard to imagine a homogenously friendly group that size, but it deepened each of those characters because every relationship with Ophelia was individual, and impacted the group differently. It created a lot of tension and opportunity for ripple effects in that tension, which really made the big moments in the book even bigger.

I feel like I spent a long time on the edge of my emotional seat holding my breath and rooting for Ophelia to finally spill her guts and talk about the things she was holding back. I love the scene where things do come out and how wild and dramatic it was. I felt like it was the perfect scene for the story as a whole.

I think readers who enjoyed CAN’T TAKE THAT AWAY by Steven Salvatore or HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE by Dahlia Adler will enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Ophelia is Latine and white. She has a diverse group of friends. Some are black, Latine, and LGBTQIA+

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two girls. Brief reference to sex. Some conversations about asexuality.

Spiritual Content
Reference to family members who are homophobic for religious reasons.

Violent Content
Some homophobic comments.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of OPHELIA AFTER ALL in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Moongarden: Plotting the Stars by Michelle A. Barry

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Sci-Fi, , , , , , , ,

Moongarden: Plotting the Stars
Michelle A. Barry
Pixel + Ink Books
Published November 1, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Moongarden

The Secret Garden meets The City of Ember as an unlikely heroine confronts loneliness and crippling parental expectations, finding her seed of courage to weed out an intergalactic government conspiracy tied to failed climate change policy in this STEM-inspired series starter.

Centuries ago, Earth’s plants turned toxic, rendering life on the planet impossible, and humanity took to space to cultivate new homes. Myra Porter is in her first year at an elite school on the Moon to train and develop her Creer in math as a Number Whisper—like her famous Number Whisperer parents. But she’s crumbling under the pressure, she doesn’t fit in, and worst of all, the tattoos that signal her Creer growing aren’t developing. In her heart, she knows she doesn’t have a Creer, and soon, everyone else will, too.

My Review

I can definitely see the comparison to THE SECRET GARDEN and CITY OF EMBER in this book. I think I kept wishing for more overlap with THE SECRET GARDEN, though. Like, I kept looking for or hoping for my favorite things about that story to be included in this book. There are a few things that made it into MOONGARDEN, though.

In THE SECRET GARDEN, the main character, Mary, follows a robin who leads her to the garden. In MOONGARDEN, a small robot Myra names Bin-ro, taken from the ID label on its underside, leads her to a hidden garden. I really enjoyed the parts with his character. There’s also an older man who was once a gardener who helps her, like Ben from the original story.

Just like in CITY OF EMBER, Myra and her friends discover a cover-up that could indicate their whole civilization is in danger. She also discovers forgotten and forbidden magic that could save everyone.

So there are a lot of really cool elements to the story, and I thought all of those elements worked well together.

I guess I kind of have mixed feelings about the main character, Myra. There were things I liked about her a lot. She doesn’t back down when she believes in something, even if the idea is unpopular. That stubbornness sometimes frustrated me, though. Maybe I wanted to see the garden have an effect on her the way it does Mary in THE SECRET GARDEN? I’m not sure what I hoped for there.

On the whole, I love that this is a middle grade sci-fi novel, and I think readers who liked CITY OF EMBER should check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
One character, Bernie, is a clone and has fewer rights/isn’t seen as truly human. Lila, Myra’s friend and roommate is described as having brown skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Most characters have a certain affinity for magic.

Violent Content
Some instances of bullying.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of MOONGARDEN in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Suspicion by Alexandra Monir

Book Review and Content, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Suspicion
Alexandra Monir
Random House Childrens’ Books
Published December 9, 2014

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After her parents die in a suspicious fire at their family estate, Imogen wants nothing more to do with her family or her heritage at Rockford manor. When her cousin, once her closest friend and ally, also perishes, Imogen stands as the last relative capable of inheriting the property. She returns home alone to the site of countless childhood memories, of which she is now the last survivor. When police uncover evidence that her cousin’s death may not have been accidental, Imogen realizes the murderer must be among the faithful few left nearest to her. The truth will shock her.

This is one of those stories which begins at the climax and leaps back to its beginning to retell events as they happened. It’s not my favorite plot device, but it’s difficult not to invest in this story for its own sake. The pace is quick and the stakes only get higher, sort of like one part Princess Diaries, one part fairytale and one part suspense. It has this sort of otherworldly yet historical flavor to it. Seems odd, but in this case it turns out to be a great mix.

The storytelling is solid and the characters thoughtful and sometimes surprising. The plot is peppered with these really strange moments that at the time seem too bizarre to work into the plot, but the author does a great job of pulling all those odd moments together to make the whole story make sense.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of very mild profanity.

Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
Imogen has the power to cause plants to grow and flourish rapidly. There are rumors of a curse on the Rockford family from generations past and rumors of a secret hidden within the garden.

Violence
Police investigate the violent death of a teenaged girl. Few details given, but the cause of death was head trauma.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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