A Book Review of Sophie Anderson’s ‘The Thief Who Sang Storms’

Hello, everyone!!!! Isabelle Knight back here again with yet another book review for MMGM! Hurrah! But first some exciting news!!! I recently started a newsletter!!!! Hoorah!!! And I am super excited about that! The newsletter is actually just a Substack, where I hope to post updates at least once a month about my writing and all my chaotic endeavours which you can find here! I’ve also been doing a few author interviews recently which is super cool, and I am super excited for those things to go live!!

But anyway, the wonderful, fantabulous, magical, whimsical, ever so wonderful middle-grade book I shall be reviewing today is The Thief Who Sang Storms by Sophie Anderson!!!!!!!

I love this book so much! I read it at a bookstore in China (they let you read books there!), and it was so good I just had to buy it! The world is wonderful, the writing is just so magical and sweet, and it’s the perfect middle-grade fantasy for any young reader!!!!

So, The Thief Who Sang Storms is about a girl named Linnet who is an alkonost (bird people with singing magic!) and lives on the island of Morovia. Morovia is split into two sides, like a broken heart. Alkonosts live on one side, and humans live on the other. Ever since the ship Joy sank, alkonosts have been banished to the swamps and other places, forced to leave their friends and family behind because they were suspected of using singing magic to sink Joy. The island itself has been divided, and when Linnet’s father is captured by the bogatyrs (guards), she will have to set off on a quest with new friends to save him. And maybe even unite the island of Morovia along the way…

As I’ve said, I love this book!!! The way Sophie Anderson really writes the story, it just feels so magical and whimsical and just so full of heart! The style of her writing honestly feels kind of like the telling of a fable, if that makes any sense? And I just really love it, and you can also really see her unique style and voice, which I’ve learned is super important in middle-grade books. I do feel like a lot of books published by Usborne have this kind of style (serious yet lighthearted and magical), which is why they are one of my favorite publishers ever!

I also really love the characters in this story!!! They’re just so much fun with so much depth and flaws (especially Hero), and Linnet is just so hopeful and determined! Now, I regret to say that I do feel like I might be a little bit old to read this (best for younger readers), but even then I still love all the magic in this book and the way these characters really hold on to hope even in the darkest times!! And I won’t spoil anything, but I’ll just say that I do admire Linnet’s determination!

The characters all really have their own personality, and I also really like the way Sophie Anderson describes Nightingale, who is Linnet’s father. Because he’s grieving, he wants a new start, and there was just something about the way that she wrote him that just felt so real!

Another thing I love about this book are the illustrations!!!! I mean, they are just beautiful!!!!! Joanna Lisowiec’s illustrations are just so beautiful, and they have this vibe that’s just so magical and really brings the world of Morovia to life!!! I especially love the illustration at the ending! Again, can’t spoil anything, but I just love it, and that illustration really symbolizes what the book is about, I guess – not just plotwise, but the themes themselves.

And to be honest, I didn’t think a lot about these themes when I first read the book. I just thought that they were beautiful themes. But now… well, the world can be kind of very very chaotic and dark, and I think this book really shows us something we really need to know – uniting for a better future. And I think it’s those themes that are just so powerful in children’s literature and it’s one of the reasons I love this book.

The plot itself is definitely very exciting – you see Linnet going through all these challenges (including a friendship that feels like it’s changed so much), and how she really overcomes all of them, and I really love that! Linnet meets a lot of new friends in this book, and another thing I love is that The House with Chicken Legs, Sophie Anderson’s other middle-grade novel, actually makes an appearance!!!!!

I’m ashamed to say I’ve never read The House with Chicken Legs. I know what it’s about, and it is high on my TBR list. But I think that fans of The House with Chicken Legs who really love Marinka and Baba Yaga (the characters in that book) will definitely love that short appearance those characters make!!!!

The book also has a lot of flashbacks. And to be honest, SOMETIMES I do find flashbacks to be jarring/irritating. Sometimes. And I do feel like it does feel just a little bit jarring in this book at first. But once I got used to them, I actually enjoyed them!! I loved being able to get lost in Linnet’s memories and Sophie Anderson’s writing and learn what it was like for Linnet before Joy sank, when humans and alkonosts lived together in unity. All those scenes just felt very heartwarming and because of that, none of them really felt like ‘filler’ to me, which is great!

My favorite scene in this book… Ack, I can’t choose!!! I love the whole book!!!!! I feel like I can never choose a favorite scene, but for the sake of this post, I shall pick one. Just know that there are a lot more. I really enjoyed one of the flashbacks in the book, when Linnet is sitting in Uncle Clay’s workshop where he makes pottery! And Uncle Clay teaches Linnet how to make pottery, and he really teaches her patience, and something about that just really stood out to me, and I loved that scene!!

There’s only one thing that I think could maybe be improved about this book and that is the fact that the way Linnet holds on to hope and determination can come off as a bit naive sometimes. I really did love her determination, but in some situations, it did feel that way. But honestly, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal since I think this book is best suited for a younger middle-grade audience, and I think that those readers will definitely love Linnet’s character! But if you’re an older reader, maybe keep that in mind. I didn’t really mind it too much, but it was something that did cross my mind.

And just note that I normally read VERY serious and intense middle-grade novels and I haven’t read that many novels that are just pure whimsy, wonder, and magic, so it could just be me! I do feel like if you’re looking for books like those, middle-grade fantasy books published in the UK usually have that. Especially those published by Usborne!! Or at least, the ones I’ve seen, and I do really love reading those!

But yeah! I really really loved this book, and I highly recommend it to middle-grade readers who are looking for a fun, magical, whimsical, very heartwarming book about hope, unity, and determination!!! Especially to fans of Amy Wilson’s novels and fans of Sophie Anderson’s other books!!!

So I guess this wraps up this book review! Thank you guys so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and I really really hope you’ll go and read this book!!! It’s amazing! And fun! And fantastic! And magical! And whimsical! And heartwarming! And I should probably stop raving about it now. XD Also, if you want to check out more book recommendations/reviews, don’t forget to check out Marvelous Middle Grade Monday!!!! There’s a lot of that there, and it’s a fantastic place for anyone who loves kidlit!!!

Goodbye, au revoir, zai jian (which is basically, ‘to meet again’ in Mandarin), adios, and I shall see you again in the next post!!!

Isabelle