ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Soft, sketchy artwork in a cool, calm palette sets the tone for this contemplative picture book about a kind, curious girl and her unusually quiet classmate. The girl's inquisitive inner monologue makes up the text, and she wonders to herself about what the boy's voice sounds like, what he thinks about, and how he feels when their classmates tease him. She's eager for a way to connect, and she finds one at a field trip to a science museum: a telephone inside an aquarium revealing the subtle noises fish make. Not only does the girl begin to recognize that there's always more going on under the surface, but the exhibit also becomes a touchstone for the two kids, which turns into a burgeoning friendship. Sualzo's cartoonish figures, with goggle eyes and rounded faces, nicely contrast the serene, layered tones of aqua, dusty pink, and warm yellow. While the suggestion that her classmate is like a fish in an aquarium might confound some, the general message of striving to understand rather than vilify someone different is powerful.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Seventeen-year-old Bina (a self-confessed liar) runs away to Catherine House in Manhattan, where she's confronted with ghosts both real and imagined. Suma's Gothic chiller contains an unreliable narrator; a haunted boardinghouse; complicated female relationships; and a deliciously dark, moody atmosphere delivered in lyrical and evocative prose. Those who persist through duplicitous foreshadowing and dead-end clues will be rewarded with an eerie reveal that folds gracefully into a sweetly melancholic resolution.

Kirkus Reviews

A child seems to never say anything at school until a determined classmate gets creative about listening.A young boy's silence at school is a point of fascination for his teachers, other students' parents, and of course, his classmates. One classmate in particular disagrees with other people's assumptions about the boy's reticence, and she disapproves of her classmates' sometimes-cruel gambits to get the boy to speak. Nevertheless, she is just as curious as anyone as to how and why the boy stays so quiet, until she has an epiphany at the science museum, where an exhibit allows her to listen in on fish in an aquarium. Vecchini's first-person narrative lends itself to a natural immediacy that positions readers alongside the protagonist as she considers her classmate's inscrutable silence. While the persistent attempts to uncover the mystery have the potential to exoticize rather than uplift difference, the characters' connection over the deceptively taciturn fish thoughtfully unspools as the boy begins to communicate—first with a smile and later with a surprise phone call. Sualzo's illustrations deliver emotional dimension with an unassuming color palette and manipulation of perspective and sequential art—truly a narrative in which the visual shares the storytelling reins.A thoughtful consideration of communication and connection. (Picture book. 4-8)