I’ll start by saying that the author did such a brilliant job of capturing the gears in a curious child mind that never stop turning. I do know this book is being published as a children’s book but I truly believe the people who would get the most out of it are actually adults. I loved the very amusing observations 10 year old Gilly makes about the world around her. It kind of reminds me of when you take your kid to the park and another child comes and sits down and just starts telling you every single thing that pops into their head and their whole life story, and they say things in such a non challant and matter of fact way that makes it clear that they’re a little naive to the reality or severity of a situation, but they definitely observe more than the adults around them likely think that they’re do.

It was an incredible exploration of the perception of a child and how that often is vastly different to that of the adults around them. A good reminder that adults see things that children don’t, but children also have the ability to see things that adults can’t. So while Gilly may be oblivious to the reality of her situation, that may be overwhelming obvious to an adult listener, she also makes observations about things/life that at some point we seem to grow out of being able to see.

I do want to mention that I was concerned about the reference to ‘Indians’ when referring indigenous people who are clearly not Indian since it references their ‘tents’ and ‘village chief’. Especially, since it came in at the end of the book and seemed to be completely unnecessary to the story. They just legitimately didn’t even need to be referenced at all. I had to pause the book completely to try to understand why this had been included in a book that seems to take place in a modern time and was published in 2025. I found this to be really disappointing as I found the rest of the book to be superb in its entirety. I just wish that this had been addressed by an editor prior to publishing as I can’t see this being recieved well (rightful so) by a wide audience. I sincerely hope the author will consider correcting this.

I appreciate NetGalley and the author for giving me an opportunity to read and review this.