"This is Hamilton at her best, with a humane acceptance of people in their struggle, and hope for the power of their love." -- School Library Journal (starred review)

"Characters as complex, contradictory, and ambivalent as is life itself: sometimes weak, sometimes attractive, always fiercely human. Few writers for young people are as daring, inventive, and challenging to read as Virginia Hamilton." -- Horn Book Magazine

"Just read the first page, just the first paragraph, of Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush. Then stop--if you can. The last time a first paragraph chilled my spine like this one, I was sixteen years old, hunched over a copy of Rebecca. It fairly reaches off the first page to grab you. Unique...wonderfully human." -- New York Times

"This is a superb book, convincing and profoundly affecting." -- Publishers Weekly

"One of Hamilton's deeply felt family stories. Like other Hamilton novels this has its rough edges, but they are outweighed here by the blazing scenes, the intensity of Tree's feelings, the glimpses of Dab through her eyes, and the rounded characterization of Vy." -- Kirkus Reviews