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.
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.
Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic by Sangu Mandanna. Illustrated by Pablo Ballesteros
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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.
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!
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.
Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend by Alys Arden and Jacquelin de Leon
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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.
Hex Vets The River Guardian by Sam Davies and Lisa Moore
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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.
When the first Hex Vet came out I was in love with them, cute and short, and just nice. You can read my reviews here and here. They were a delight to be read.
And then there was no more, it just stopped, so I assumed it was another one of those series that are left incomplete. So when the third volume was suddenly suggested because apparently there is going to be a series for it, I was happy to see it come up and immediately ordered it.
I immediately felt the difference in approach. As much as it is the same comic for starters now it is Hex Vets rather than Hex Vet and has a new author/illustrator, and the story is less twee, it is more trying to hit the spots for drama, and a TV series, rather than the focus being on comic medium.
This is a very weird thing to say of a book, but you can tell when the direction it had is suddenly not the same. This one was made for Tv, the previous two were just fun and made to be books. It makes a difference, you lose a lot of the beauty when you try to force a comic of a story that you are now plotting as an animation, and the other way around.
So that was the main loss of stars, the change in focus and the plot showing this change. It lost its star. The story is still cute and we’re still having some chaos in trying to be good vets to magical creatures, and it was cute to see the main reason for the disruption to the river health and why the creatures suddenly didn’t go too well. That was interesting, I just wish this had been still like the previous two.
I will still give it a chance if new volumes are released and hope that this was simply a transition volume, because the first two were really fun and cute.
Agent Harrier: Mission Impossib-hole by Ben Sanders
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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!
Ghostly Things (Volumes 1, 2 & 3) by Ushio Shirotori
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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.
Welcome to a full series review because sometimes trying to review a single manga volume feels like I am vaguely triyng to not spoil the plot or some volumes are just hard to describe without a lot of references to previous volumes.
Ghostly Things was a whim purchase and after reading the first volume I immediately had to go buy the other two (or initially as many as there were in the story). So that already tells you it was very enjoyable.
The premise is that we meet Yachiho who is moving into her new house on her own because her father is overseas, and the house comes with a few quirks and hauntings. But this does not discourage our lovely gentle heroine, and instead she decides to brave things and keep searching, because she has her own motives to have moved in alone.
The volumes cover a few plot lines, one is the mystery of the house and what it hides, then there is the search Yachiho is doing for a Book of the Dead, we also have our usual school and friends side story, though this adds flavour and some extra adventures, and some antagonists to the mix, and allows the town to show as part of where our story develops.
There is also a little spirit that helps her and is trying to guide her to do the right thing, but the spirit has its own motives and secrets.
The overall story was cute and the creatures, characters and environment were nicely drawn in lots of detail and very fun. The story flows, even though as times it feels a little too short, and I did wish it had one or two more volumes to expand on some parts, but it was still done well in three volumes.
If you like stories about yokai, the spirit world and a few mysteries thrown into the mix, I can recommend this one as a quick read since it is only three volumes and goes by really quickly for an afternoon read if like me, you can’t wait to read the next one.
The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-Be Wife by Iwatobineko
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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.
As you may already know, I have a soft spot for manga, and when this popped up on my recommendations (I can’t remember where) I had to try it out. The art style looked adorable and the premise too.
The series basically asks, what would happen if you had an invisible man and a blind woman work together and fall in love?
Yakou Shizuka, who is quiet, bashful and blind works at a detective agency as a secretary and assistant. Her boss, Tounome, is a gentleman and the main investigator, with the added talent of being invisible. This is particularly helpful for investigations, even if it can generally be a bit of a difficulty for relationships and other things, but this is not an issue at all for Yakou as she can sense him and know when he’s near.
The fact that Yakou can sense him makes Tounome interested even more on her and so it starts that he decides to invite her out for a date and woo her slowly. So you get a cute slow burn romance story, and you also get a few mysteries and detective agency plots to keep the overall story going. On top of that the agency has two more characters, a human who is super good at tech and a wonderful tracking beastwoman, who also do detective work, and who are quite invested in the developing relationship between Yakou and Tounome.
The first volume is utterly cute and very sweet, it is quite slow but will make you root for them and giggle while the story develops. The “chapters” are short and quick, but they still are fun to read and there is more plot than just their relationship, including the world building happening as the investigations happen, and learning more about the coworkers.
I would recommend it as a soft romance with a little bit of disability, and an interesting take on how to coexist with variety of differences. Very sweet overall.
