Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: Nothing Else But Miracles (Audiobook review).

I think this was the result of a random search through the library's juvenile historical fiction. I'm posting today with the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle. Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there!

 

 Title: Nothing Else But Miracles

Author: Kate Albus, read by Carrie Coello

Publication Info: Tantor Audio, 2023. 7 hours. Hardback published 2023 by Margaret Ferguson Books, 288 pages.

Source: Library

Publisher's Blurb:
Twelve-year-old Dory Byrne lives with her brothers on New York City's Lower East Side, waiting impatiently through the darkest hours of World War II for her pop to come home from fighting Hitler. Legally speaking, Dory's brother, Fish, isn't old enough to be in charge of Dory and her younger brother, Pike, but the neighborhood knows the score and, like Pop always says, "the neighborhood will give you what you need."

There's the lady from the bakery, who saves them leftover crullers. The kind landlord who checks in on them. And every Thursday night, the Byrnes enjoy a free bowl of seafood stew at Mr. Caputo's restaurant. Which is where Dory learns about the hand-pulled elevator that is the only way to get to Caputo's upper floors. The elevator that's so creaky and ancient, nobody's been in it for decades.

Until now.

The Byrnes' landlord dies unexpectedly and the new one is anything but kind. When he catches on about Pop being gone, he turns the Byrnes in, hoping they'll be shipped off to an orphanage. Dory and her brothers need a hideout, and suddenly the elevator and the abandoned hotel it leads to provide just the solution they need.

My Review:
I read Kate Albus's first book, A Place to Hang the Moon, and enjoyed it, but had some reservations (see my review here). In fairness, I'll note that it won a lot of awards, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

In my opinion, Nothing Else But Miracles has all the good aspects of the earlier book and skips most of the issues I had with it (I called out anachronistic vocabulary and an absurd plot). The plot may be a little far-fetched, but felt within the range of what could have gone on during WWII, and the main character, Dory, felt wholly relatable.

If I have a criticism, it's that the author has a tendency to very deliberately break the 4th wall--there are moments of direct address to the reader, in a sort of coy way. It felt like a too-careful effort to make sure the reader noticed certain things, and it probably works just fine for the kids, but rubbed me the wrong way.

The historical setting seemed well-researched and established, and this time manners and vocabulary were consistent. There was a good balance between happy endings and the realities of that period. The narrator did a nice job; nothing stuck out to me, which to me is the right outcome--a natural and almost transparent narration.

My Recommendation: 
I'll give this one a positive recommendation for kids from about 9 up. No "adult situations," but some things--friends losing their fathers to the war--may be difficult for some children.

 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
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