Tag: illustrated

Book Review

Moon Reads: Glam & Beardy Volume I

Posted on

The Very Serious Diary of Glam & Beardy Volume I by Ruby Clyde & Rachel WD. Illustrated by Vincent Batignole.

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 love good middle grade series. Some of my favourite have been Diary of an Accidental Witch, The Boy Who Grew Dragons or Tales of the Chocolate Heart. So when Little Tiger had this up for review and request, I had to try it to fill my middle grade craving for a good series.

Glam & Beardy do not disappoint at all.

We start by getting to know Glam who is the last child of the Glamour family and is hoping to get the most glamorous familiar, since all kids get one around her age, except her. Hers just doesn’t seem to come at all. We get to know her family and that the kingdom has several “families” with different skills, like glamour or wisdom or strength.

It is also not common but not a bad thing if your familiar is from a different family (like Glam’s mum, who was born into Wisdom but has a glam familiar). Glam gets sad that she can’t find a familiar, and she’s not very glamorous, until she does meet her familiar Beardy, who is definitely a not glamorous familiar, but even worse, they’re not a defined skills from the kingdom, so Glam is convinced she has the wrong familiar.

This leads to an adventure to try to find a way to find the right familiar for Glam and the right kid for Beardy.

One of the things I really liked was that Glam’s family isn’t absent, on the contrary they are there for her even if she doesn’t always believe it or actually feel like it. I love stories where the parents/family are supportive and part of the story and not just absent or there for plot points.

There was also a lot about friendship, belonging and about skills, and the nice thing is that Glam is very much interested in history and anthropology rather than glamour, but still tries to be as glamorous as she can.

It was super cute to read, the illustrations are spot on and really fun, and there’s a lot f the world and story yet to find out, so I am very curious for the next volume. If you enjoyed any of the series I mentioned above, this is a must read for sure!

Book Review

Moon Reads: Dungeon Runners Level 1: Hero Trial

Posted on

Dungeon Runners – Level 1: Hero Trial by Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton

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.

I love middle grade fun series and Dungeon Runners starts with a bang for sure.

Kit is a small little gnorf (part gnome, part dwarf), which means he’s pretty small and doesn’t have any particularly great advantages for playing as Dungeon Runner, but he has always wanted to, since his own grandfather was one of the amazing teams back in the days.

So when a space opens up for a new team to join the Dungeon Runners, Kit is ready. Except that he has no team, so he finds new friends and a new team in Sandy, a sea witch who only knows one spell and Thorn, a vampire who loves knitting. Every team must have a healer, a fighter and a magic user, so they’re perfectly balanced to take it on.

The story is very cute and interesting, with Kit trying to be brave and fit as a fighter because it is one thing to dream you want to be part of a wonderful team, and then actually have to be an amazing team member is another thing. But what Kit may not have in strength he has in being a good gnorf, compassion and even courage when needed, and he will figure out the teamwork with Sandy and Thorn so that they can qualify to be the team selected.

I loved it, between the art, the “dungeons” the narrating of the actual “dungeon running”, and the three friends finding their strengths and weaknesses and the fun and clever ways. It is also a “fair” book in that they’re not perfectly winning all the time, it is an actual competition and therefore not everything goes their way just because they’re the main characters.

It’s a lovely little series and a good start for it, I am very intrigued where it intends to actually go, but so far (I have read up to book 3) it is very delightful and will be a recommended one for kids (one of my work colleagues’ kid is enjoying them too, so even kid approved for sure).

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 Rads – The Baker and the Bard

Posted on

The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught

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.

Felt like this fit nicely into the same vibes as our last book. The Baker and the Bard follows two friends, Juniper who is an apprentice at the local bakery, and Hadley who is a bard that performs at the local inn. The little adventure had in this book is sparked by a stranger requesting a specific pastry that requires magical mushrooms that need to be foraged since the baker doesn’t have them in stock easily.

Our two friends will then set off on a soft gentle adventure to the forest where they will also realise there’s a little mystery of something eating local crops and leaving a glowy goo behind. Might as well find magicla mushroom and solve the mystery, right?

The story is just cute with finding new creatures, a caretaker and a bit of understanding coexisting environments. I admit the story felt a bit shoe horned to just cover certain topics and at times it was a little weak but the art came into save it and honestly the art is the best part of this cosy adventure. It is still a very cute and cosy book which left me wanting some pastries and a nice cup of tea.

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: The Moth Keeper

Posted on

The Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill

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.

From the same author as The Tea Dragon Society, we have The Moth Keeper, so I know I like the art style and it was partly one of the reasons I chose this book. But the story itself was worth the read too.

In this book we follow Anya, who is training to be a Moth Keeper, a slightly lonely but crucial responsibility and a great honour. It is lonely because they are the protectors of lunar moths that allow a special flower to bloom once a year, which is needed for the village to thrive. This does mean you end up basically living at night and seeing mostly nights and very little sunshine and very few of your people.

Anya wants to prove her worth and take over the post, but it feels like a heavy cost to have to do less with friends. Then of course, Anya notices something that could cause harm to the moths and somehow breaks tradition to try to move forward.

The story is very sweet and gentle, it has an intricate nightly world initially, based around the moths and our little village, it is full of a fantastical and yet simple way of life. It is also about growing up, about making choices and pondering what thebeaten path brings, or if the choices you make, once you actually go through are exactly what you wanted. What if you want it, but also want to be able to do more, to engage in with your community?

Very sweet, lush and hopeful, worth a read for the lovely dreamy art, and for a sweet story.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic

Posted on

Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic by Sangu Mandanna. Illustrated by Pablo Ballesteros

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.

I think I found this while searching for Sangu Mandanna’s new book which I couldn’t remember the title exactly, and then saw there was a cute graphic novel, and had to get it!

Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic does not disappoint. Jupiter has always dreamed of joining one of the Schools of Magic, so when she tries all the tests for all seven schools, feels like she has failed them all and then gets a visitor to say she has made it is not the School of Earth Magic, she does not know what to do.

She decides to go anyway, despite knowing that the School of Earth Magic is looked down by the rest of the students, doesn’t seem to involve any “cool” magic spells and her main tutor and teacher is too serious and demanding. She still sticks it out and somehow starts carving a place for herself in the school, but then an old enemy of the school and magic in general returns, testing Jupiter and her own magic.

IT is a lovely artwork and the story was adorable. I liked the view of the different schools which is a different approach to subjects or houses and here it is more about affinities, including ghosts (which if you are not a ghost, you can’t join). And Jupiter finding her place and figuring things out was also nice, and the way she almost gives up but then finds a way to find her own voice and magic was quite nice too.

Can recommend as a quick sweet read full of magic.

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: The Infinity Particle

Posted on

The Infinity Particle by Wendy Xu

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 been following Wendy Xu for a long time and love her art a lot, so after Mooncakes and knowing she was making a new graphic novel, I had my eyes on it for ages. This where I find out I haven’t actually reviewed Mooncakes here even though I loved it loads.

Anyway, the Infinite Particle follows Clementine Clang who moves from Earth to Mars and lands her dream job, working with an Artifical Intelligence pioneer. It also follows Kye, who is the humanoid AI created by Doctor Marcella Lin, the AI pioneer Clem works for.

Clementine finds Kye fascinating since he seems a bit too human. And that is intriguing to her as she has built her own robots since she was young (it is part of why she got the job) and her current companion is a lovely moth-shaped one, called SENA.

As Clem collaborates and interacts with Kye, their chemistry and interactions set off sparks, but this independence and change in Kye’s behaviour starts causing friction with Dr. Lin who has issues and doesn’t handle things well, throwing rages and tantrums and being too rigid. And she’s not very forthcoming with allowing Kye independence. Brings out the interesting question of why would you create a humanoid AI and try to make it as human as possible then keep under your control too much, and not let it develop and grow as an actual AI?

As the interactions and relationship between Clem and Kye grows, it makes Clem and KYe both ask questions of where the line between humanity and AI is, what makes one human? (this is an ever pondered question, we still ponder it between humans and animals/other creatures).

The artworks was very cute and fit right, and the story didn’t shy from interesting questions and difficult topics, tackling them with curiosity and openness, and giving space for the characters to discover and work things out. I liked this thought and approach that was given and it reminded me of my own days building robots, playing with neural networks and algorithms and programming. Very well worth reading and getting a copy of it if you can.

Book Review

Moon Reads: Zatanna The Jewel of Gravesend

Posted on

Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend by Alys Arden and Jacquelin de Leon

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.

I am not huge on superhero type of comics and stories, but Zatanna always seems to win me over. I read another story a while back, Zatanna and the House of Secrets, and since then I keep trying to find more of her.

In comparison to House of Secrets this is an older teenager almost adult Zatanna, and it still has touches on her identity and who she is. There is as always a lot fo magic and weirdness and that carnival festival. I think those two things, the magician and magic act feels that come from Zatanna being the child of famous magicians, and the carnival vibes definitely are big reasons for my love fo her stories.

My dad used to always do magic and even had a few years when he did magic at events. I learned a bunch of tricks and how to escape two types of cuffs for some of the tricks, and so I can think of maigicnas with joy, even if it is all in tricks.

This jewel of Gravesend is a bit darker and more mystical, which questions Zatanna’s parents, her history and what she is willing to sacrifice to save what she loves, and at the same time she isn’t sure she wants anything to do with magic, but feels pressured into it, there is also her attempting to become her own person and be independent and her love for the carnival and her odd life, and the artwork here was perfectly suited to the story.

It is definitely a favourite story of magic, mystery and intrigue and with Zatanna at the front of it. So can definitely recommend it as another good read to add to the collection.