I am a big fan of Sophie's previous books and was really looking forward to this one
It has a different feel to previous stories but it is still a wonderful, captivating story
Our main character is Linnet, an alkonost, human like but with bird features. A terrible tragedy divided inhabitants of the floating island she calls home. When her father is captured, Linnet goes on a remarkable adventure, demonstrating courage and friendship.
Another great story, I have already ordered my paper copy.

Like The House with Chicken Legs, The Thief who sang Storms has its roots in Russian folk tales but here, Sophie Anderson has created an entirely new fantasy world. The floating island of Morovia is home to both humans and the bird-like alkonosts. Both races live in harmony until a devastating tidal wave destroys the royal ship and takes with it the two queens who rule the island. The alkonosts with their singing magic are blamed for the tragedy and their magic is outlawed. They are driven from their homes and forced to live in the swamps.
Linnet is a 13 year old alkonost who, with her father, steals to survive. One of their thefts results in her father being taken away for trial and imprisonment and Linnet decides that it is time to act and to do something to reunite the peoples on the island.
This is a brilliant story with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader interested as well as a whole cast of characters who any child would want to have as friends, especially Lumpy and Whiskers.
The book explores many themes such as tolerance, friendship and loyalty as well as how adults and children deal with fear but with a light touch.
This was a gorgeous read and I will definitely be buying a copy for my class when it is published. Thank you to Net Galley and Usborne Publishing for my advance copy.

Having enjoyed many of the author’s previous books, I was keen to dive into this one, and it proved an enchanting adventure.
Linnet is an alkonost, a creature similar to humans but with bird feathers, and a race who develop singing magic, although Linnet currently has no magic. Their island home used to be peacefully shared by humans and alkonosts but is now a land of division, where singing magic is outlawed and alkonosts are forced to live in the swamps.
Linnet longs to bring back freedom and return to living in peace, and the story takes her on a physical and emotional journey to try and achieve this, assisted by a diverse supporting cast of believable characters.
It’s en enjoyable read with a few twists and turns and a message of hope and unity triumphing over fear.

Thank you for Usborne for allowing me to read this fantastic book.

Sophie Anderson continues to blow me away with her skills of weaving a story and from the moment I first read house with chicken legs she was an autobuy author and this will continue to be.

This book made me cry it hit my heart with it speaks about grief, it is what needs to be heard and even me as an older person this hit me in the feels. The characters I am always rooting for when it comes to Sophie’s books and I always feel that I care so much. I love how I am thrown into a world and I fall whole heartedly and can I wait for the next one, no but I will and I will love it and I will be raving about this book again to the people I teach yes yes I will because everyone needs to hear about how amazing Sophie Anderson is.

Children will love this book because of all the adventure and adult will love it with what it deals with and how it deals with it and how it shows this to children because we all know we can’t always hide them from things in life.

A truly wonderful adventure story beautifully written. Once again Sophie Anderson has captured the imagination with this superbly told story of Linnet and her father's attempt to reunite two tribes on a floating island, and find out what happened when a tragedy struck the inhabitants, driving a wedge between the two communities.
Full of wonderful ideas and beautiful passages. Some superb twists and turns along the way too. I really loved the idea of how to cast magic through singing.
I read the opening two or three chapters to my Year 3 class and I have rarely seen a group of people so completely transfixed! Several said "That is the greatest book ever!".

I was so excited to begin reading this book. I've read Sophie Anderson before and love being plunged into the world of vivid characters and important themes. The Thief Who Sang Storms did not disappoint. It begins a little slowly setting the scene and the background of the story where you meet alkonosts and humans and Linnet a 13-year-old who has yet to discover her singing magic. But the pace soon picks up as Linnet has to navigate a world where she is wiser and kinder than the majority of the adults around her. There are numerous twists and turns that I didn't see coming.

What I loved
The tension and the sense of adventure.
Linnet's resourcefulness.
Whiskers and Lumpy!!
The importance given to kindness for change.

What I didn't love so much
I was so engrossed in the present day story, furiously trying to find out what happened, that when Linnet had her memories it really slowed down the story which towards the end I found a little frustrating.

Overall, 4 stars. I really enjoyed this book, it kept me engaged and desperately reading to the next chapter long after I should be asleep.

My 11 year old son, a long time fan of Sophie Anderson’s books loved this, declaring it to be gripping.
Full of magic, excitement, and adventure, Linnet has to find a way to save her father from being convicted and sent to the mines. Enlisting the help of her friends, and the power of song, Linnet triumphs.
Themes of friendship, trust and betrayal are deeply woven through the story which kept my son enthralled to the very end.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review

The Thief Who Sang Storms by Sophie Anderson
Published by Usborne Publishing Ltd.

From the author of The House with Chicken Legs comes a beautiful new story of friendship tainted with betrayal. Linnet - a strong and determined heroine drives the storyline alongside stunning descriptive text, drawing the scenery inside ones mind.
But is the art of singing by the alkonosts (bird people) that the humans fear after a historical tragedy.

When her father Nightingale is captured by the ruling Captain, Linnet is forced to step up and drive her plan forward to save her friends, family and those in captivity. But with no magic of her own it is her courage to forgive and her strength to love that brings everyone onto her side.

And it is only after friendships and freedoms have been snatched away that everyone is convinced to face their fears and work together, rather than live with the divide, learning the power of teamwork, bravery and harmony.

Another beautifully written and magical tale of grief, friendship and love by Sophie Anderson with a celebrity guest appearance by the wonderful Baba and the house with chicken legs.

Joanne Bardgett - lover of children’s literature, teacher of littlies

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Full of suspense, magic, grief, this is a wonderful, and refreshing, book about prejudice, morality and above all, kindness. The story is told from the perspective of Linnet, an Alkonost living on the island of Morovia. The Alkonosts, a form of bird-people, have lived in harmony with humans for many years but, when tragedy strikes, the humans turn against the Alkonosts and begin to mercilessly persecute them. The tale is beautifully told, with flashbacks to happier and peaceful times. It takes the reader on a journey of wonder, fear and joy all at the same time. I loved the short link back to the house with chicken legs, too! This would be a fantastic book for units on prejudice, persecution and the importance of understanding, tolerance and kindness. A super book!

Wow! Another amazing adventure from Sophie Anderson. This time following the brave and thoughtful Linnet who just wants to put the world to rights despite grieving over her mother. A beautiful and heartwarming tale that will suit any KS2/KS3 reader.

Some authors I have discovered by luck, some by recommendation through Twitter and a few through their power to engage the children I teach. One such writer is Sophie Anderson, whose debut title The House With Chicken Legs was one that hooked one of my Year 5 girls when it first came out, to the extent that this rather loud and chatty child became as still and as quiet as the proverbial mouse while she was reading. Intrigued, I picked up a copy of my own, and having loved it as much as she did – and having read her following titles at the earliest possible opportunity – was thrilled to be approved to read this, her latest read, early through the wonders of Net Galley.

Very different in style from those other titles, this is less of a modern fairy tale and more of an adventure, albeit a fantastical one, with shades of When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook and the recently published Spark by Mitch Johnson. With the author’s characteristically beautiful storytelling and another strong and intelligent heroine to hook in the reader, this is sure to please her current fans and plenty of new readers too.

Set on the distant island of Morovia, it recounts the story of Linnet – one of a group of people called alkonosts who have been forced to live separately from their human counterparts following a terrible disaster at sea for which they have been blamed. Unlike the rest of her community, Linnet has not been blessed with the singing magic which her birdlike people are blessed as they head towards adulthood – the magic which is said to have led to the drowning of the island’s leaders together with many others – including Linnet’s mother.

Together with her father, Nightingale, Linnet lives in the dark and dreary swampy area of the island, away from the friends she once knew and where the two of them are forced to steal from travelling humans in order to scrape a living until the day when Linnet takes too much and the leader of the royal guards sends his bogatyrs to arrest Nightingale. With no other family to call on for help and no friends close by, Linnet is forced to take drastic action to try to free the father she loves. Can she find a way to rescue him? Can the humans and alkonosts find a way to live in harmony once more? And will Linnet’s powers finally appear and enable her to sing the magic that she believes that she should?

Like the author’s other protagonists, Linnet is a flawed character who does a lot of growing up throughout the story. Although she is fully justified in her resentment of her separation from her friends and move to the swamp from her more comfortable family home, she respects her father and cares about him deeply and is hugely repentant when her actions cause him to be taken away. With no magic of her own to help him, she is forced to use her sharp intelligence to come up with a plan and shows enormous resilience and courage in her attempts to free him.

To a great many of us, it seems totally alien for one group of people to dislike or be frightened of another group for no obvious reason and yet here, many of the humans believe that they are justified in their dislike and fear of the alkonosts and their magic. While in schools, we do our utmost to promote equality between people with all kinds of differences from one another, sadly in some homes we know that that bigotry still exists and that our young people are exposed to it on a regular basis. Although we can, and do, teach inclusivity in PSHE and discuss isms routinely, books such as this which inform through the power of great storytelling, go a very long way in enabling children to reflect on the behaviour and prejudices of those around them and – hopefully – see that underneath those differences, we are all the same.

Perfect for Years 5 and 6 upwards, this is a gorgeous story which is destined to become another modern classic and will no doubt introduce many others to the author’s work. Publishing on March 31st, the most enormous of thanks must go to both publisher Usborne and Net Galley for my advance read.

I love Sophie Anderson’s books, and this one did not disappoint. The story is fast paced and portrays relationship between friends and families, with many twists and turns along the way. It was a nice touch to see characters from other books featured in this story, however, it is not essential that you have read Sophie’s other books in order to understand what is happening in this story.

Another amazing book from Sophie Anderson. I have loved all of her books and this one did not disappoint. I can’t wait until I receive my preordered paperback so I can share it with children in my class. I know they’ll love it too!

I'm a huge Sophie Anderson fan, so was very excited to get a chance to review The Thief Who Sang Storms.

It's actually a book that took me a while to get into. I think this is largely because it feels very different to Sophie's earlier novels. There's less of the emphasis on folklore and myth that I have come to expect from her, with The Thief Who Sang Storms set in an entirely fantasy kingdom. It's a fascinating place though, one of three islands that moves freely around the seas, sometimes drifting closer to each other, sometimes farther apart. It's an island split by divisions too. There are the alkonosts, bird-like humanoids with diverse magical powers rooted in song, and there are humans. Once they lived in perfect harmony, but then, following a tragic accident, the humans seized power and the alkonosts were exiled, forced to eke out a meagre existence in the swamps or locked up for forced labour.

Linnet, our main character, is a young alkonost girl, split from her human friends, grieving her mother, and trying to find her own magic, firmly believing in prophecies that suggest it might be the thing to bring unity to the island of Morovia once more.

It's bold, imaginative fantasy, and although it took me a little while to really get into this new setting, this new style, I found it very worthwhile. The Thief Who Sang Storms is a very powerful book dealing with some very difficult issues with true beauty.

For this is a story about grief, about how we cope with loss, the overwhelming urge to wrap ourselves in cloaks of our grief and shut out the world, and of how to break through those barriers. It's not the first time Sophie has written about death and loss and the eloquence she treated it with in The House With Chicken Legs is present here too, showing an intensely painful and personal side of grief.

It's also a story about division, and this feels so relevant to the world we're currently in. It's an exploration of how fear leads to hate, how unity can break down into suspicion and division. But it's a story of hope too, and how those divisions can be overcome. And I think that is its most remarkable strength.

I have never read any of Sophie Anderson's books, but I definitely will now. I absolutely loved this book. I was drawn into the world of Linnett from the very first page. The characters were so beautifully created that I believed in them from the very start. The characters are complex, and face difficult decisions. It is a wonderful story of adventure and bravery, love and loss, and above all of forgiveness and hope. I would recommend this for any child (or adult) from 9 upwards.

It's a wonderful book with a powerful message about the importance of not letting your fears twist into hate. Sophie Anderson is a great author. However, since there was no "Customize Styles" option on my NetGalley Shelf app, it was really hard for me to read such a long book with such a tiny font.

Wow wow wow! Sophie Anderson does it again. A child in my class (who would openly admit that reading isn’t their favourite activity) asked the other day, ‘Does this author have any more books?’ after reading The House With Chicken Legs so will most definitely be recommending this to them! Amazing!

Sophie Andersons descriptions in this beautifully written book flow from the pages into your imagination immersing you in the character's and settings from the start. Having not read a Sophie Anderson book before I would highly recommend this author. Looking forward to reading other books by this author.

Sophie Anderson is a rare talent. An author who makes a new story feel old, with all the finesse of a master storyteller. She brings to life classic, and often unknown, fairytales with her own unique style and epic twists. Reading one of her books is like stepping into an ancient and magical world: the characters and settings feel real and are intricately created, and with attention given to every detail, they leap off the page and dance around you whilst you read.

The Thief Who Sang Storms is a beautiful - and incredibly powerful - book. Interwoven with themes of grief, loss and friendship, it is a story of bravery and unity, of conflict and courage.

When Linnet’s beloved home of Morovia is torn apart by fear and prejudice, her greatest wish is to use her magic to unite the people of her land. After her father gets captured, she finds herself alone. Can she save her father and her island, or will deceit and lies destroy them all?

The Thief Who Sang Storms is sure to be a massive hit with fans of Anderson. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

As with Sophie Anderson's other stories, this fantasy is a modern, relatable twist on a traditional Russian folktale - this time based on a poem called Nightingale the Robber about a mysterious man with bird-like features and a powerful, dangerous whistle. In The Thief Who Sang Storms, the magic is centred on a thirteen-year-old girl who attempts to bring together two opposing sides of her island while also trying to save her persecuted father.

Readers of the author's previous books will enjoy spotting a familiar old friend. There's always a myriad of new details too to delight readers in Sophie Anderson's fantasy worlds. It's easy to melt away into this story's world of shipwrecks, floating islands, fortresses, swamp homes and magical bird-people. Underneath the fantasy sit a number of highly relatable themes - divided societies, grief, prejudice and the power of finding hope in dark times. It's a mesmerising story that has many layers to unpack.

We also see a protagonist who is frustrated at not yet having received the 'singing magic' that she feels will empower her to make a difference. For a middle-grade readership on the threshold of puberty, the feeling of waiting to be big enough to make an impact is likely to be a familiar one - but the author has a message of encouragement for her readers through Linnet's story. We may get frustrated when we lack agency to change the world around us, but often it's the power of the smallest decisions and actions that lead to the biggest impact when we follow our hearts, seek to bridge divisions and pursue what is right.

Thank you to the publisher for sending us an early review copy. Our review features on our Spring 2022 Ones to Watch list: https://www.booksfortopics.com/post/ones-to-watch-new-children-s-fiction-for-spring-2022.