Sandry's Book, by Tamora Pierce

Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce (Circle of Magic, book 1); young adult, fantasy; 272 pages (about 6 hours on CD)

Sandry is one of four drastically different children who has survived terrible tragedy by seemingly impossible feats. They are brought together at Winding Circle Temple, where children gifted with magic are trained. All four have the potential to become great mages, but they must first learn to cope with their losses and adjust to their new lives.

As much as I love Tamora Pierce, I wasn't quite sold on this book. There were things I loved about it (mostly the fact the spinning yarn plays an important role in the book--drop spindles for everyone!), but I never really bonded with it the way I did the Tortall books. Part of that might be that this book is clearly aimed at a younger audience than the more recent Tortall books (I would put this firmly in the 4-6 grade range), but it's also an early book of Pierce's, and I think she hadn't quite found her voice yet. The audio book might also have colored my opinion. This version is from Full Cast Audio, which I normally love, but in this case it felt a little rough around the edges (maybe it was an early work for them, too?). I still hope to pursue this series, and I hope to see it improve as it goes.