Playing With Stones by Maria Fedotova

Surprisingly I liked this book a lot. Usually, I don't read children's books and so I can't compare it with other children's books.

It's an autobiographical story about a girl named Nulginet (sorry I don't know how to write it down properly in Latin alphabet) who lives in the community of reindeer herders. She is 6-8 years old during this book and she travels with her mother (who is really cool by the way) and a bunch of reindeers. Stories are very short and simple, I think their target audience is children of the same age as the main character, writing seems good. I like how these stories were presented. They feel true and authentic, you see a girl living with her mother in the tundra, not a grown woman who writes about it. Also, it was interesting to read about reindeer herder's community from someone who was raised in it, not an outside observer. 

I can understand why some parents are disturbed by this book. It deals with death casually, and there are some purposefully unhappy stories. For example, a story about premature baby deer who dies in Nulginet's arms. Tbh I'm glad that the author didn't make her stories super nice and happy because it's not how life works (especially life in these harsh conditions).

The last part of the book, where Nulginet went to school, was a bit boring for me. There were some regular school stories, nice but nothing special. 

Overall it was a nice book, solid 4 out of 5.