Tag: children’s

Book Review

Moon Reads: Rune The Tale of a Thousand Faces

Posted on

Rune: The Tale of a Thousand Faces by Carlos Sánchez

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Last year I saw this book in the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize selection and decided to read it since it looked interesting.

The first thing I will say is that it has deaf representation and the “made up language” is based on sign language, which was suer interesting to have in a graphic novel and I enjoyed this.

Our story follows Chiri and her best friend Dai, they both live in an orphanage next to a deep dark forest. While they scavenge for ingredinets for Chiri to make a new culinary experiment, they get plunged into a secret kingdom called Puddin’. This kingdom is suffering under the Thousand Faces Monster, from which Chiri and Dai will try to help the kingdom and defeat the monster.

As all graphic novel’s for kids in a magicla secret kingdom, this one follows a series of small quests and puts our friends to the test, and we get to meet some allies to help. And the artwork for it was delightful, alongisde the fact that the secret kingdom has a lot of focus on food and magic, which is perfect for Chiri and Dai, even if Dai is not as brave as Chiri. But it is a cute read and I can understand why this was selected as a nominee for the prize. It was a delight to read and it was quite fun.

Book Review

Moon Reads – The Bakery Dragon

Posted on

The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Apparently we are on a theme of reviews being quite cosy. I think partly this is because the world is being a little bit too much and we need reassurance, a safety blanket and cosy books are perfect for this.

The Bakery Dragon was actually initially an illustration Devin Elle made and then this inspired her to write a little book story about a dragon who longs for a different kind of treasure.

I think the overall story is super cute with our little dragon, Ember, finding that a hoard of gold and treasure isn’t really motivating and then while wandering around the town they see a little bakery window and find it so enticing. I honestly fully understand the dragon, I find the bakery windows and looking at bread and pastries super tasty and exciting and I just always end up wanting to go in and buy something and taste it (specially if you add the nice smell of the bread, yum!).

Anyway, bread turns out to be the perfect hoard and treasure for Ember, who is curious and wants to learn how bread is made. The baker then shows Ember how to make bread and Ember learns that sharing bread and making bread and having others enjoy it is very rewarding and a treasure in itself.

I am a fan of Devin Elle’s artwork so it is not a surprise that I loved a book about a little dragon that loves bread and that expands on her illustration work and dedicates itself to bread and cute little dragons. This book is like a bread version of The Tea Dragon Society hitting all the stops in cuteness, food appreciation and dragons.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Firelight Apprentice

Posted on

The Firelight Apprentice by Bree Paulsen

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

The Firelight Apprentice follows sisters Ada and Safi in a city that is powered by magic and recovering from a devastating war. Ada is the responsible sister making sure things work out and they are alive, but she can see Safi is developing powers of magic and knows that her sister could benefit from becoming an apprentice to a magician, but she also wants to keep her sister safe and near.

Still she decides to let her sister join a group a travelling magicians who offer to take her on as an apprentice as they see hSafi’s powers and what could be. Safi of course id delighted to be learning and developing her magic, but there are still forces of darkness lurking, particularly a lich that is power hungry and ready to steal it from those that have magic.

I’ve loved Bree’s other books and so had preordered this one, not sure why it took me forever to actually upload the review, but it was a good read. It wasn’t the same as the Garlic series, but it still had these interesting conflict of growth and what happens as you grow and who becomes your friends and allies, and how to make that work for you being yourself.

The magical world was super interesting as was the magic that exists, I feel a little like it is the same world where Garlic and the Vampire happen but maybe a different much civilised area since this is a city. Still, it was a nice addition to the collection and a good read.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Narwhal’s Sweet Tooth

Posted on

Narwhal’s Sweet Tooth by Ben Clanton

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Every time I see there’s a new Narhwal and Jelly book I am very happy for it.

The series is very funny and cute and perfect for little ones. The artwork feels a bit like drawn with a crayon and it is so fun. Narwhal is always so peppy even when bad things happen.

In this one, Narwhal’s “horn” which is actually a tooth starts seeing the effects of having too many sweet things and ahs a crack, which hurts Narwhal, and so JElly and Narwhal go around trying to figure out how to fix it and cheer Narwhal up.

As always, sheaningans, waffles and lots of fun happen and this was very cute, with some interesting facts about Narwhal horns/tooth.

I just want to know what happens next, because Jelly seems to have softened a lot now that they’re good friends with Narwhal.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Diary of an Acidental Witch – Magic Ever After

Posted on

Diary of an Acidental Witch – Magic Ever After

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

For some chaotic reason (I think health and house move) I had not posted my review for this entry into one of my favourite middle grade series!

Diary of an Accidental Witch follows Bea who moves into a new village with her dad who studies the weather, and the weather here is all funky, but it may have to do with the magical school nearby rather than just natural phenomenon.

Bea ends up going to witch school and turns out she is a witch, so we follow her shenanigans through a series of books (I have reviewed all of them and I love them so much!). Magic Ever After is what looks to be the last of the series. This is the one bad thing of this book, that it is the last so far and I am heartbroken!

Bea’s ready for magical plans over the school holidays and then she realises her dad is obsessed with trying to do magic, and Taffy is being too serious and thinking hard. So Bea is here to help her Dad and Taffy with their not so secret wedding. She then has extra secrets to keep, magic to teach, and a party to plan full of magic, chaos happens, but also, it is a very sweet book.

I enjoyed the relationships showing up and the friendship and everyone pulling up to help make this memorable, including Bea still panicking about things and her dad’s chaos happening, but in the end the wedding is so cute and very much in line with the chaos of the family.

Very cute, a nice “ending” for the series and with lots of potential for picking back up if they ever do!

Book Review

Moon Reads: Mission Impossib-hole

Posted on

Agent Harrier: Mission Impossib-hole by Ben Sanders

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

I am absolutely loving Agent Harrier (you should read my review of the previous one: You Only Spy Twice). And in case this wasn’t clear this was a requested book from the list the publisher sends (I love Little Tiger Books, they are awesome!), which they kindly sent me, and I love their books, here is my review.

Agent Harrier is a chaotic secret agent who somehow is very good and bad at his job and yet he always saves the day. The art is hilarious and breaks the fourth wall in funny ways and makes terrific use of the full page spread to play with the story and add to it. This is part of what makes the series so good, the art is spot on to the story.

There seems to be a lot fo holes going on in this third book, and not just any kind of holes, but PLOT holes, which are not helping the story go too well! They keep transferring Agent Harrier through various stories and realms to try to find the culprit behind all the holes that are interrupting this mission.

As always, it made me laugh and giggle and I felt it was too short but thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend you read all three books if you haven’t yet!

Book Review

Moon Reads: Leina and the Lord of the Toadstools

Posted on

Leina and the Lord of the Toadstools

Written by Myriam Dahman & Nicolas Digard. Illustrated by Júlia Sardà

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

I have p[previously reviewed The Wolf’s Secret, which had stunning art and a wonderful story that was the reason as soon as I saw this book was coming out, I had to order it. I have no regrets.

Júlia has a perfectly fitting art style that makes the book flow beautifully to the story. It perfectly matches authors and artists, and I loved it.

Our story follows Leina who has the only boat in towna dn therefore helps ferry people to the forest so they can gather supplies like wood and hunt in the woods. But the forest is scary and therefore it is known that not everyone comes back from it.

So, when one of her friends doesn’t make it out, she decided to go looking for him, because why not? As she moves through he forest, she meets the Lord of the Toastools, who seems a bit magical and very strange, so Leina has an inkling that he might know where her friend is.

She is then invited for dinner in the palace fo the Lord of the Toadstools and because she wants to find her friend, she accepts, which then brings us to a few discoveries in the palace and why people disappear int he forest.

This one was less cosy than The Wolf’s Secret, but it was still in the same mysterious and cosy but slightly scary territory as the previous one and I don’t know, for me that combination is just perfect, like a modern type of fairy tale that one wants to keep reading more of.

Book Review

Moon Reads: You Only Spy Twice

Posted on

Agent Harrier: You Only Spy Twice by Ben Sanders

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

Agent Harrier is a super fun and funny series of a wonderfully chaotic spy dog (he thinks he is the absolute best). There is in general a lot of fourth wall breaking and just chaos.

This is the second book in the series, and if you haven’t read the first, please do, it is hilarious.

But You Only Spy Twice finds Harrier somehow feeling like there is deja vu happening and things are repeating themselves in his current spy mission, what a very funny feeling indeed, specially when there seem to be two of him!

The book makes good use of negative space int he illustrations and lots of dramatic elements and overall the page. it is one of the best uses of the space in the pages to narrate and to give the reader an immersive experience, even when the characters break the fourth wall, it still feels interactive.

The story is funny, very Spy Kids but much younger type of chaos, and a perfect story for young readers or to read to them given the setup of the pages. Quick read too, very quick.

Can’t wait for the next one!

Book Review

Moon Reads: Find Peace in a poem

Posted on

Find Peace in a poem

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

This is a lovely little poetry book, with a good collection of poems about mindfulness and about various topics to do with peace, calm and introspection.

The collection comes with the poems by “topic” and each beautifully illustrated. Some of the poems were ones I had read before or knew quotes that had come from them, but other were new to me and I found them fascinating. As it is always the case with a poetry collection, some of the pieces resonated more with me than others and there was one in particular that just stuck.

The Ink Cure by Kate Wakleing just hit me deeply, because damn, I use at and sketches, the little distracted doodles to navigate sometimes complex feelings or situations. It is known that my art is heavy in emotion and expression and part of it is because to me drawing is both a mindful practice and a very emotionally driven one. And I felt like this poem captured a lot fo my feelings very well.

I recommend this book for getting a nice encouraging collection that guides you through various approaches and ideas with a good touch of art and illustration. Beautiful in so many ways!

Book Review

Moon Reads: Thunder Cake

Posted on

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px MoonKestrel Logo2 20px

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

I remember someone saying they had fond memories of reading this book for thunder storms and rough times, and so I obviously had to get a copy and read it.

Thunder cake is a lovely little book about the power of grandma’s and good food.

As a thunder claps and booms, Grandma explains it is time to make a thunder cake and they need to get the ingredients immediately because a real Thunder Cake must be in the oven before the storm arrives.

However the list of ingredients is long and thunder signals the storm coming close faster and faster, looming over them.

Now, this is based on the author’s childhood memories of her grandmother and how she helped her overcome her fear of thunder, and well, I think this is a delightfully way to help a child get over fear of thunder and make it into something nice, an epic lovely quest to make a cake and have a delicious item ready.

Can definitely agree with whomever had mentioned this was great for rainy weather and rough times, it will make you smile, remember your time as a child and maybe also remember those adults who made an effort to help you conquer fear with a kind and fun adventure.

I haven’t yet baked a Thunder Cake, but one day I will when the thunder storms come and they are not in the middle of the night and I am actually able to have some of the ingredients. In the meantime, I recommend this book for another cosy autumn/winter read.