This is the beginning of Haru and Yama's journey to get rid of a cursed item. I liked some of the fantastical elements. There's a whole sequence that gives me major Spirited Away vibes. 

I didn't understand why the other birdies picked on Haru for being so different. Kids don't need a reason to be mean. But I think it's because they're blue? But with the muddy palette, you can't really tell the other birds aren't either. For some reason, Yama is a pig in a class of birds too.

Haru's parentage seems to play an interesting part.

i'd so love a subversion with Goose being the chosen one and not Haru.

Yama reminds me of those infamous stories of people throwing out ouija boards and them appearing back. I told Yama telepathically to leave that mess alone, but she didn't listen to me lol.

I don't know if I like this story or not, but I'd read book 2 at least. This is a laying the foundation part of the story.

 Super-Frog Saves Tokyo 2 stars
Nonsensical. The battle starts from within, I guess. 

Where I’m Likely to Find It 2 stars
Boring detective.

guy runs away to escape it all for a while.

 

Birthday Girl 2 stars
“Whatever you wish for, however far you go, you can only ever be yourself, that’s all there is to it.” 

I think it’s interesting how the wish is never stated. 

The Seventh Man 3 stars
A mixture of grief and overcoming fear. A little weird. A little engaging. 

 Whoo, these bats were ugly! But it worked well for the more grotesque characters. 

If you get past the ugly bats barrier of entry, the story is engaging though it has many beats I’ve seen before without unique enough characters to carry it through.   

 Ghosts being thwarted by an indomitable kid.  Cute.

This was charming. It weaved in environmental + climate change + forest fires seamlessly in a way that was still engaging but not preachy. 

I also liked the understanding parents. In many of these stories, the parents just tell the kids to get over major changes in their lives; but the parents had empathy here. Julianna is allowed to feel angry, frustrated, and sad. While the parents encouraged her to speak about her feelings, they let her sit with them.

Overall, I enjoyed the measured approach to emotional issues and protecting the environment. 

Dnf @38% (page 129)

I’m sad to say this book wasn’t for me. I found the storytelling too sterile and BORING. The premise of a Black female fire chief with magical realism + environmental message + finding a lost sibling interested me. But the execution couldn’t keep my attention. Maybe this would work better as a screenplay? Also, the story is set in the year 2042, but you didn’t see any technological advances or changes in society at a macro level. It felt like 2024, to be honest.

Syrah, the main character, had a traumatic event take place as a child that sent her to foster care and bred her desire to firefight and love of botany. She had some issues with stifling her emotions and appearing unemotional to others. I don’t think she was a bad character necessarily, but I wasn’t compelled to see her development/follow her journey.

Also, the love interest felt shoe-horned in. A clear HR violation too. Go girl, give us nothing.

I can’t verify if Alvaro was really married or not because I don’t care enough to read on. In hindsight, syrah was probably just latching on to the one person who showed her kindness. It looks like she maybe a Tree Love Interest (Giant) too(?)

I feel the scientific facts weren’t integrated as well as in the first book. The first book had a subplot of Scout's ill-prepared older brother showing what not to do and how Scout had to survive until they could meet up again. That little story helped keep readers interested.

For this book, it was all good information, but it was very text-heavy. I don’t know if a child with a short attention span will maintain until the more edutainment parts.

Serviceable and cute with some QR codes that go to YouTube video and printouts. I know a 10-year-old me would probably have liked this a lot.