Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Rashin Kheiriyeh GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: February 24, 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A cute little picture book about the celebration of the Persian New Year in Iran. Lovely folktale-style story, wonderful characters, nice touch of humour, amazing illustrations. Loved the authenticity of the portrayal. Recommended. Plot Preview: Nane Sarma, the grandmother of winter, lives in a small village in Iran. Every year, at the end of the cold season, she awaits her old friend Uncle Nowruz, the harbinger of spring. But somehow, she always seems to miss his arrival. This year, she's determined to be better prepared, so she calls her three grandchildren over and starts making Nowruz preparations well in advance. Do we get to meet Uncle Nowruz? We certainly do, and he's everything Grandma Nane was waiting for. Does she get to meet him? You need to read the book for that! A fun fact first: Several indigenous cultures across the ...

AUTHOR: Hans Christian Andersen GENRE: Short Story, Classic. RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A classic short story written by fairy tale master Hans Christian Andersen. Good, not great. This story has been on my agenda since many years, but as one of my upcoming audiobooks turned out to be its retelling, I thought it the right time to give this a go. The plot is fairly simple, though its morals go deep. A vain king falls in love with a nightingale’s beautiful voice and keeps her caged in his court, until a toy nightingale that looks prettier comes his way and earns greater esteem from him. The real nightingale secretly returns to her home in the woods, but comes back after hearing about the king’s illness. I don’t know how I would have felt about this tale in my childhood. I sure wouldn’t have analysed it deeply. But reading a classic children’s story in adulthood often results in our finding hitherto undetected flaws. Of course, this was first written in 1844, so times are obviously v...

AUTHOR: Laura Amy Schlitz GENRE: Middle-Grade Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2025 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade fantasy about a girl and a doll, with the narration in both their perspectives. Quite a few subplots, which makes the book seem disjointed at times. The non-human characters are interesting; the humans are more mixed in behaviour. Some good life lessons on what to do as well as what not to do. Minor ‘Toy Story’ vibes. Recommended, though not with much enthusiasm. Plot Preview: (The actual storyline is quite tricky. This is a barebones version.) One day, eleven-year-old Tiph saves an old lady named Szilvia from falling and assists her back home. After a chat, Tiph realises that she can help Néni (Aunt) Szilvia with certain chores, and in turn, Szilvia could help her fulfil a long-awaited wish. Will her parents be happy with the new arrangement? From a nearby shop window, a little antique doll named Gretel sees Tiph helping the old woman and immediat...

AUTHOR: Pope Francis and Paul A. Reynolds ILLUSTRATOR: Peter H. Reynolds GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: January 20, 2026 RATING: 5 colourful-rainbow stars! 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 In a Nutshell: A beautiful picture book containing a beautiful message and beautiful illustrations. Based on a message by the GOAT Pope Francis, but secular enough to be relevant to all. Much, much recommended! I am not usually one to pick inspirational books. But just a single glance at the key author’s name on the cover page ensured that I scrambled to get a copy of this picture book. Beloved Pope Francis 🥰, whom I have respected, admired and loved ever since he showed Catholics a new path towards inclusivity and acceptance, spoke about a metaphorical personal treasure chest to a group of youth in 2015. On his passing, the authors, twin brothers Peter and Paul Reynolds ( Love their apostolic names! ), decided to pen this picture book inspired by that message so as to make it reach and influence mo...

AUTHOR: Lauren Haldeman GENRE: Comics Collection PUBLICATION DATE: March 10, 2026 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A “diary comic” collection by the poet-artist. Covers random musings, confessions, and funny moments from routine life. Hazy in its purpose and disjointed in execution, hence leading to a lacklustre reading experience. I had expected far better from the blurb. The blurb tells us that the author is an award-winning poet and that this book offers “a fresh, humorous, and emotionally resonant perspective on the wonders and weirdness of everyday life.” This tempted me to give this book a try. I mean, we do see plenty of the weirdness on display in real life these days, but it would have been great to look at the wonders as well. Sadly, the book doesn’t exactly do justice to this claim. The blurb also calls this a ‘debut book from an exciting new voice in comics’, but this also is inaccurate. The author already has a couple of published graphic novels to her name. (Unless the blu...

AUTHOR: Lim Sunwoo TRANSLATOR: Chi-Young Kim GENRE: Speculative Fiction Collection PUBLICATION DATE: February 10, 2026 RATING: 3.7 stars In a Nutshell: A speculative stories collection. True to the genre, with a good mix of real and surreal. Character-oriented despite having tricky plots. Good translation. A bit disjointed at times in the storytelling but on the whole, a great debut. Recommended. This debut collection contains eight stories that delve into human feelings while still reaching beyond the human experience into the surreal and the bizarre. It is ‘speculative’ in the true sense of the word, with each of the stories transcending logic without offering pragmatic justifications. There is no foreword or note introducing the theme of the collection. But the blurb says that these stories “explore feelings unseen, unconveyed, unexplainable” and that “each sparkling story asks you to look within, to encounter all that is desired and strange and possible in life and death.” This ef...

AUTHOR: Yume Kitasei NARRATOR: Eunice Wong GENRE: Science Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: September 30, 2025 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A near-future literary eco-thriller about two sisters who go on an epic sea journey to search for their missing third sister. Character-oriented, decent pacing. Interesting plotline and characters, great worldbuilding. Three sections, with the impact of each going steadily downwards. A good option that sadly misses out on the chance to be great. Plot Preview: In a world ravaged by climate change and food scarcity, twenty-two-year-old Skipper, a skilled sailor, makes a meagre living by reselling plastic debris she finds in the ocean. Though the youngest of three sisters, Skipper lives alone with her grandmother, who isn't that kind to her. Then Skipper learns that her eldest sister Nora is missing. Nora had left home a decade ago to work with an organisation focussing on a solution to the global food crisis. Nora has been Skipper’s idol for a lon...

AUTHOR: Tini Malina ILLUSTRATOR: Tammi Reichel GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: March 24, 2026 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A picture book about a little spider with a creative artistic style. Nice story and quirky illustrations. Would have loved it more with a different ending. The current one came out of nowhere and left me confused about the moral. Plot Preview: Selma is a little spider with a huge creative spirit. She makes her webs artistically, no matter how much the other spiders point out that her webs are not functional. Selma wants her artwork to capture the splendour of the universe, but how can a small spider on the ground make something that reaches the stars? This book was originally published in German in 2025 under the title ‘Selma, du machst das falsch!’ This English translation (plus a Spanish edition as well) is due to be published in March 2026. Selma is a wonderful character who follows her heart rather than blindly adhering to herd mental...

AUTHOR: Joe Hill GENRE: Fantasy-Horror. PUBLICATION DATE: October 21, 2025 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A fantasy-horror about a bargain that goes wrong and the consequences of the same. Epic plotline covering many decades, multiple flawed characters. Decent horror. Political content. Overload of themes. Many vulgarities in the writing; I hate such a writing style. This is an outlier review. (Like… a really, really, outlier review! 😬) Plot Preview: 1980, Maine. Arthur Oakes is a young student at Rackham College, working as a senior student librarian at its exceptional library. His life goes awry when a local drug dealer and her partner force him to steal rare books from the library. When his close friends discover the trap Arthur is caught in, they all step in to help, concocting a wild scheme that involves using the disquieting Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. Unfortunately for them, they end up calling not just any dragon, bu...

AUTHOR: Heather Webber GENRE: Contemporary Magical Realism PUBLICATION DATE: November 4, 2025 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary Southern fiction focussed on two women looking for healing. Loveable characters (who are a bit too perfect to be believable!), a dash of magical realism, character-focussed writing, excellent use of the found family trope, heartwarming ending. The pacing is a bit slow and the plot somewhat sappy, but it should work well for those who enjoy Hallmark-style stories. Recommended. Plot Preview: After a freak lightning accident results in the death of a beloved family member, Juliet Nightingale decides to take a solo trip to heal as well as to find herself again. Her car abruptly breaks down in an obscure town called Forget-Me-Not in Alabama, where the residents go out of their way to help her, even as they behave a bit oddly once they hear about her car. After a bitter divorce, Tallulah Byrd Mayfield moved to her grandfather’s house in Forget-Me-Not wi...

AUTHOR: Joanna Rowland ILLUSTRATOR: Thea Baker GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 26, 2017 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A beautiful picture book to help kids cope with grief. Simple narration that’s perfect for the age group. Nice illustrations as well. Recommended. Grief on losing a loved one is an experience we would not want any child to go through, but it is an unavoidable part of life, and some children sadly face this sadness sooner than anticipated. This book can be one source of comfort to them in such times. The text comes from the first-person point of view of a young girl, so it sounds like a personal narration. When children read it, the first-person POV will surely help them connect better with the feelings of grief and sadness. To be clear, this book is not about understanding death. It is focussed only on the emotions felt after facing such a loss. The titular memory box is one method the narrator uses to cope with her feelings. It is a ...

AUTHOR: Don Winslow GENRE: Short Novels Collection PUBLICATION DATE: January 27, 2026 RATING: 4.33 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of six short novels, each a character-oriented story of moral conflicts and misdemeanours. Excellent in variety, plot development, writing, pacing, and endings. Much recommended! Don’t read the GR blurb. The blurb calls author Don Winslow "America's King of Crime Fiction" and “America’s greatest living crime writer”. But I had never even heard of him! 🤭 ( Put this down to my relative abstinence from the thriller genre in recent years. ) Those two labels were impossible to resist, so with the assurance of this having ‘six short novels’ instead of one full-length novel, I decided to give this collection a go. Now that I read it, I am wondering why I haven’t ever read him before! It’s important to remember that the book promises six short novels, not short stories. With the total page count being about 300 pages, each entry gets more than eno...

AUTHOR: Lisa Papp SERIES: Madeline Finn, #4 GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 12, 2023 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: The fourth and final book of the Madeline Finn series. The content and the tone are different this time, as can be guessed from the title. Not directly faith-oriented, but it does include the ritual of the blessing of animals. The story and the message are still lovely though, as are the illustrations. Recommended. Plot Preview: It’s a special day. Madeline and her mom are taking Star and Bonnie to the annual Blessing of the Animals. The reverend at the park offers a special blessing to all the animals turn by turn, which leaves Madeline feeling awed. Madeline knows that there are more animals who deserve the blessing, but they are all at the animal shelter. With a long line of animals still at the park awaiting their turn, the reverend cannot leave. So she passes on to Madeline a special gift and message, and Madeline is happy to pass i...

AUTHOR: Nadine Takvorian GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: March 10, 2026 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices graphic memoir offering some insights into the Armenian genocide. The intent is worth appreciating; the content needs more detailing. Good illustrations, but I didn’t like the colour scheme. A valiant attempt at highlighting a part of history that’s never discussed. Recommended for awareness. Not an easy read. In September 2025, I read Pablo Leon’s ‘Silenced Voices: Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide’ , a graphic novel highlighting a genocide in Guatemala I had never heard of. When I saw this book, I was stunned that yet another graphic memoir has opted to showcase a genocide that doesn’t get attention anywhere. It makes me wonder how many mass massacres throughout history have actually been brushed under the table or even been denied their occurrence as propaganda. Kudos to such graphic novelists for making their voices heard and showing the trut...