I get to read a lot of books during the year, including a lot of MS / YA fiction. Much of it is...not great. So it's always a nice surprise when I pick up a book that wasn't anywhere on my radar and discover I'm holding a book that's truly excellent.
This was the case with The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams, which I threw in the Amazon cart on a whim. The story is set in along the silk road, where a traveling merchant / ne'er do well named Samir magnanimously trades for a nameless orphan who was about to be murdered for theological reasons that remain vague.
Along the way, we learn more and more about Samir, whose character develops in surprising ways as the orphan learns that the man he thought of as an amoral huckster is revealed to be someone much more worthy of his respect.
The book does a marvelous job of immersing the reader in a history and region most middle schoolers are likely to be fairly unaware of, without ever feeling academic or pedantic. Rather, I found myself wanting to learn more about the time and region, since the book left much unsaid or merely hinted at.
Additionally, the illustrations are great, and the attention to typography and the book's feel (both tactile and visual) was superb. This will be a book I'll be recommending to every student who walks through the doors.
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