The Song of Orphan’s Garden
by Nicole M. Hewitt
Intermediate, Middle School    Feiwel    352 pp.
1/25    9781250906045    $17.99
e-book ed.  9781250906052    $9.99

In this fantasy novel in verse, spare narration yields jewel-bright imagery of a frozen land where a magic metal—Fermata—is necessary for Humans to buy entrance into the Giants’ jealously guarded, sheltered gardens. In Lyriana’s experience, Songsummoners who sing Fermata into existence—the protagonist’s mother and, someday, Lyrie herself—are exploited, Lyrie’s mother even losing her life trying to make enough metal to save everyone from the cold. Lyrie hopes that rumors of a fabled Orphan’s Garden are true—that an enclave exists where the Winter Spirits don’t rule. Meanwhile Brob, a boy Giant whose family had been banished by the Giant King, leads his family toward the secret garden he himself created when he was six. The author’s nonlinear storytelling style meshes with the tale’s alternating voices and varied poetic structures, creating multiple narratives with intertwined mysteries and payoffs, while poetry aficionados will note, among others, a sonnet, haiku, and sestina tucked in with the blank verse. Themes of trust, interdependence, and the power of music develop meaningfully over the course of this taut, beautifully rendered adventure in which Lyriana and Brob, if they can overcome their differences, have complementary roles to play in ending the tyranny of winter.

From the March/April 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.