(1) 4-6 In 1910 small-town Colorado, Stanislava's plan for getting out of her Slovene immigrant community -- going by the "American name" of Sylvia, concealing her heritage to avoid discrimination, and one day going to college -- comes to an abrupt halt when her older sister, Stina, runs away to get married. When their mother demands she stay home to do the never-ending housework in Stina's stead, Stanislava/Sylvia runs away, too, ending up at the public library in Denver. One of the librarians recruits her to serve as translator for the library's outreach to Denver's Slovene community. As she helps to bridge the cultural gap, she meets women who show her that Slovenians are not all just like the ones she grew up with, allowing her to embrace both her Slovenian and American identities as she charts a course for herself. Anderson brings lots of threads together with skill, telling a cohesive story that has as much to say about the present -- in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, heritage, assimilation, classism, self-determination -- as about its historical setting. Sylvia has an effective balance of naivete and worldliness, making her an easy protagonist to root for, and her quest for independence is resolved in a gratifying but not overly neat way. This is historical fiction at its best, fusing period details with a compelling narrative and challenging assumptions of then and now.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) YA When the Burying Ground ship is destroyed while carrying peace delegations from warring nations Dura and Ariminthia, there are only two survivors. Cast up on a tiny island, Cora, a Duran, lives using all she's learned from "invasion readiness training"; Vivienne, maid to an Ariminthian princess, builds a shrine and believes that the drowned princess, sea, and island are conspiring to care for her and protect her country. When the two girls meet, their very different perspectives prove to be bemusing and illuminating, so much so that the political situation in their countries looks quite different to them by the time they are rescued. Together, they devise a way to fulfill the peace treaty that was the Burying Ground's mission, only to find that powerful interests from both nations connive to perpetuate war. Coats engages vital contemporary concerns -- financial and military interests, environmental heedlessness, political authoritarianism, dis- and misinformation, forms of resistance -- within this intricately plotted, brightly crafted fantasy. Machinations, plots, counterplots, and surprise revelations keep the momentum going right up to a cliffhanger of a last line. That and the two stalwart, earnest, ornery, and devoted protagonists should leave readers eager for a sequel.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) 4-6 In this bright, engaging tale set in medieval England, Coats lightly interweaves medieval craft and culture with deeper questions about work, value, and getting around the status quo. Tick has long helped her father make the tallow candles and beeswax charms that are their livelihood. Now that Papa’s losing his eyesight, her work is essential. She loves her sense of expertise and responsibility; especially, she loves working companionably with Papa. Then comes Henry, a boy apprentice, and Papa shuts Tick out. You will soon be changing, she's told, and chandler work isn't suitable for women. But Tick is named for St. Scholastica, patron saint of "just because something is so, doesn't make it right." She concocts her own plan to make and market beeswax charms at the annual Stourbridge Fair. Coats is a lively, capable storyteller and intelligently dovetails historical detail with issues--and a self-aware expressiveness in this first-person, present-tense narrative--that resonate today. Her plot twists, turns, and hinges on a pleasing, convincing mix of medieval practices and unusual but realistic circumstances that provide for a hopeful ending.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(2) 4-6 In this horse-centered fantasy, Sonnia has one desire in life: to earn enough coppers to buy her beloved ­Ricochet, a fleet horse in the royal stables. Then Ricochet is reassigned to the king's racetrack, where she can't follow. Except, through a great stroke of luck, the new jockey at the track is her former carer, Deirdre, who pulls strings to get Sonnia a job as a stablehand. Being one of only a few female workers isn't easy, but Sonnia doesn't expect the most difficult challenge: all the stablehands take part in illicit midnight cross-country races for wealthy bettors, and she has to choose between sitting them out while struggling to support her family (let alone saving money to buy Ricochet) or risking the horses' soundness--and the king's wrath--if she participates. The factors that pressure Sonnia against her better judgment into joining the ride add up to a somewhat contrived motivation in this vaguely old-fashioned setting (kings, bandits), but what's completely authentic is the engine driving the story: Sonnia's unquenchable desire to own Ricochet, in the face of all obstacles. Horse-lovers will sympathize with Sonnia's ambition, her fierce protectiveness toward the horses, and her strong moral compass. Technical aspects of horse care are minutely and gratifyingly rendered. And not to spoil the ending, but when the drama comes to a rousing finish, fans of ­wish-fulfillment narratives will be smiling.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) YA Captured and raped by a medieval Welsh warband, Elen has found a way to survive by convincing the band's leader, Owain ap Cadwgan, that her name saint has promised to keep him unharmed as long as he keeps Elen near him. A relatively well-treated prisoner and lover, Elen now feels trapped--by the lies she has spun; by the scorn she endures from Owain's band; and by traumatic memories of her family's demise by fire, murder, and sexual violence. When Owain abducts the wife and children of a neighboring lord, Elen sees in them a chance to be part of a real family again. The story is based on an account in a medieval Welsh chronicle. Its plot involves the ornate politics of small kingdoms and family allegiances, and the impositions and political weight of England's Norman king. Amidst all the masculine burning and pillaging, Elen's first-person, present-tense telling (a narrative choice that is not entirely successful) sheds a light on female survival and resistance. The blow-by-blow account of male bumptiousness and maneuvering threatens to overwhelm that of Elen's tremulous inner life, but that, perhaps, effectively conveys the depth of her isolation.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

(2) 4-6 This tale of historical fiction/fantasy is based on accounts of two green-skinned children who appeared in a twelfth-century English village. When twelve-year-old Agnes's parents are chosen to foster the unusual pair, she thinks that at last she'll be important. But the strange children aim to lure Agnes underground to be a servant to the fairy court. There are multiple plot twists, alternating narrative voices, and frequent surprises due to shifting illusions.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(2) 4-6 Malley, the daughter of convicted Milean rebels, is sent to a "national school" to become an obedient subject of the oppressive Wealdan government. There she discovers that resistance is more widespread than she'd realized. Malley is an engaging narrator whose gradual maturation adds an appealing layer to her character. Although the book's semi-industrialized world is fictional, readers will note parallels to history and current political discussion.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2018

(2) 4-6 After the Civil War, eleven-year-old Jane, her stepmother, and her half-brother travel by boat from the East Coast to Washington Territory. In conversational prose, Jane chronicles the four-month trip and her first months in Seattle, where she cautiously but bravely makes her own way, finding mentors and allies. Jane's complex emotions and believable relationships give dimension to her character.

Reviewer: Sarah Hannah Gomez | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2017

(1) YA In 1290s Caernarvon, Wales, English Cecily, resentful of her father's new post as a town burgess, feels the place and the filthy, taciturn Welsh servants are beneath her. When the Welsh rebel against the English, it's her servant Gwinny's turn to exercise power. Coats allows the two narrators to be both sympathetic and unsympathetic in this unusually honest portrait of the effects of power.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2012