Tag: diverse

Book Review

Moon Reads: Squire

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Squire by Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas

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

Read before: No

Ownership: A copy of this book was provided upon request from the publisher but I also bought a final copy, which is packed somewhere in a box currently.

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’ve been following Sara and her artwork for ages, and when I found out Squire was in the making, I was super excited about it.

Let me tell you, it did not disappoint and I can’t wait for more of it to come!

Squire follows Aiza, who dreams of becoming a Knight because it is a huge honour and also because it will probably mean people bully her less and she will be popular and a heroine. And finally, because she can then achieve Knighthood and have full citizenship. Initially, her parents are against it, reminding her of her heritage and why she is shunned, but in the end, they let her go.

At the training, she meets up with a few rivals and several other hopeful youngsters wanting to be knights. But as much as the training is hard, she is keeping her identity secret and this causes tensions.

To say much more would be to spoil the plot but I loved the many characters shown through it and their own unique stories and motivations, but not only that, the artwork is fun, the story has a lot to tell and it is, in general, a good read that I breezed through.

If you want new adventures of someone dreaming of becoming a Knight, of defending their country and the conundrum of their identity against what the values of this knighthood are, look no further, with fascinating and intricate artwork [some of those backgrounds are stunning] and a cast of characters that would provide you, someone to cheer for regardless of what your personal favourite type of character is, this I a book not to miss and read as soon as possible.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Amari and the Night Brothers

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Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston

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

Read before: No

Ownership: Borrowed from Nikki at https://booksandlemonsquash.com/

I had my eye on Amari for a while but then didn’t buy it and somehow ended up borrowing it from Nikki. I do not regret my choices.

Overall the magic concept, the invitation Amari gets, and the “summer camp” are wonderful, alongside the way they get selected for a career and to develop magic. The worldbuilding was delightful, and I could see myself enjoying this now and even more if I had gone back in time and gifted this book to my younger self at around 10-12 years old.

The one thing I did struggle with a lot was the beginning of the book, I can’t put my finger on it but it just didn’t grab my attention and I had to force myself to get through the first few chapters. They read a little like a mix of Harry Potter with Meg Murray’s anger from A Wrinkle in Time, and yet it didn’t have the casual effect both series had on me, maybe it was because I had already read those books and therefore it just didn’t make the same impact to me. Not sure, but once I got past those starting chapters and more into the world, I was more into it.

I think the strength of this book is the world-building and the characters. I wasn’t actually huge on Amari, but the rest of the cast made up for the times I wanted to grab Amari and knock some sense into her, but overall it was a good set of characters that interacted well with each other and even the grown-ups had a good part in it at times.

The overall big reveal was well prepared for and yet it still wasn’t blatantly obvious sot hat you did feel surprised and yet could say “oh that makes sense”. Of course, this is a spoiler-free review so I will not reveal what that particular event is, but I enjoyed the plot and its development. It feels well suited for the target reader age and also suitable for readers of all ages.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Agent Zaiba Investigates The Poison Plot

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Agent Zaiba Investigates The Poison Plot by Annabelle Sami. Illustrated by Daniela Sosa

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

Read before: No

Ownership: Preordered.

Spoiler free review: Yes

Series: Agent Zaiba Investigates

The second book in the Agent Zaiba series, you can read the review for The Missing Diamonds here, and now that we have the Snow Leopard Agency UK branch setup, Zaiba is ready for more things to be resolved and any mystery or good investigation that may come up.

The best part is that is the sumer fete time and Zaiba has a detective “murder mystery” course setup as one of the features of it. But things turn interesting when in the middle of a baking competition, there appears to be poison added to the cupcakes and causing one of the judges to be ill.

Zaiba, Poppy and Ali waste no time in trying to find out who put the poison in the cupcake and why.

One of the things I like a lot in the book is how the foreshadowing puts the clues and items nicely there for the reader to find if they are paying enough attention but they are also not screaming “I am the clue”. It is just done well through the story, so little hints of “hey this may be what the poison was made of” that show up early in the book, help and show that sometimes data you get before the actual incident happens can be quite useful. As Zaiba and her aunt put it, powers of observation.

Overall, another good mystery for Zaiba and her friends to solve, more development on the relationships of the family, and a better view into the world Zaiba inhabits and the story of her ammi, which is nice to see. You get continuity but you could also read each on their own and it would be alright without needing to read the previous one.

Highly recommended diverse detectiving classic to be!

Book Review

Moon Reads: Agent Zaiba Investigates The Missing Diamonds

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Agent Zaiba Investigates The Missing Diamonds by Annabelle Sami. Illustrated by Daniela Sosa

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

Read before: Yes

Ownership: Preordered.

Spoiler free review: Yes

Series: Agent Zaiba Investigates

First book in the Agent Zaiba series! I have been meaning to review it for ages, and then packed the house, got the second one, then got the third and ended up rereading it so I could do a review of each of them consecutively.

I would class the whole series as something to become a classic, like Baby Sitters Club, or Fantastic Five. But with a more diverse cast! We have Zaiba, her little brother and her best friend, Poppy. All of them really into detectives and investigating, so when at the engagement party for the wedding of a cousin of Zaiba, some diamonds go missing from a famous actress,,,,, alongside the dog that had the diamong collar, Zaiba takes it into her hands to find out the truth and maybe just maybe crack the case fo who stole the diamonds.

Overall, it had a lot of culture, but adventure wrapped in one, and I loved just following the trio of friends around the hotel while they find clues and make notes and figure things out, some by accident and luck and some by using the powers of observation and memory.

Highly recommend it if mystery is the game and you want something with adorable drawings and cute notes and just something that makes you feel like you are part fot he fun and the adventure.

Book Review, Subscription Boxes

Moon Hauls: Tarot of the Divine and Beneath the Moon

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This is a mix “review” of two things I got that I couldn’t really separate just for the sake of posting about them.

The first is the deck of Tarot of the Divine. This was made by Yoshi Yoshitani and the focus was to make it diverse, queer and just full or new meaning. Each card is a story, some deeper meaning and I absolutely love the artwork and the connections made, plus the fact that it features stories and lore from all over the world, not just the usuals or just the European fairytales. It goes beyond that and does an amazing job and the meanings of the story/lore matching the meaning of the card they represent in the deck.

As a tie in, there is a book, Beneath the Moon, which collects the artwork and stories that feature in the deck. It doesn’t collect everything, since it’d be a very thick book if it did, but it features the main ones, and it made me really excited to read the stories and feel like this is a perfect fairytale book to keep coming back to. It has the stories, gorgeous colourful art and a lot of diversity in cultures and countries.

As a coherent couple fo things, I am just in awe at the immense work Yoshi put into making this deck and book. Every card has packed so much detail trying to convey the story but at the same time, to make them tie in with their meaning and with the opening of many possible interpretations.

There are stories from every continent, form every type of story, I don’t even have enough words on how exciting this is for me since it is gorgeous and perfect.