howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

How cute. We need more cutesy, fun Halloween picture books, plus the art is lovely and the kids are a diverse little group.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A family "dramedy" is never really my cup of tea to begin with, but the art seemed promising and I thought this might be cute. Unfortunately, I was very bored and the humor felt so repetitive. I'd advise passing on this one unless you're a really big fan of the old adult contemporary humor newspaper comics — this reminded me a lot of some of those.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars

This is a pretty useful guide, especially for beginners; it goes into detail with a lot of stuff that I think it's fair to assume most people reading this book will already know, but it's good to cover all your bases and the author isn't overly repetitive about it, either. There are tons of great tips for Procreate, though if you're looking to use another program for digital lettering, you're probably out of luck.

It's also worth mentioning that the first half of this book is actually about hand lettering, not digital lettering, so if you've already perfected hand lettering (or don't want to/aren't able to do it for whatever reason), you won't be able to use the first half of the book. I'd say the marketing for this book could use some work.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Super cute artwork and a really fun way to teach kids their alphabets. <3

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Definitely an interesting start to the trilogy! I'd be very intrigued to see where things go after that cliffhanger. No spoilers here, but Rose has some sort of strange ability where she can perform a sort of astral projection: her soul leaves her body and wanders around untethered, allowing her to eavesdrop, speak to ghosts, and now, investigate her father's murder. The art is simple but nice and the translation is well-done.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

What a cute little story of Chinese New Year traditions, with a fun twist of this group of kiddos setting traps to try to catch a dragon. The art is bright and colorful, and there's a good cadence to the words that would work fabulously for a storytime session.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Let's Be Weird Together is cute and a little amusing, but... well, for lack of a better way to say this, it feels very shallow and basic to me. Lots of the humor is "cute", but nothing is outright funny; many panels are sweet, but none of it warmed my heart or made me feel much of anything. Sure, I was able to equate a lot of it to myself and my spouse, and that was nice, but I can't see myself recommending or purchasing a finished copy of this book in the future.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

... meeeeeh...

I'll come back and finish this review when I can piece together an explanation that makes sense, but I didn't enjoy this. I may even try re-reading it when I'm in a better mood to see if it's just me, but something about the way the author approaches the entire topic makes me uncomfortable.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was expecting more of a children's picture book of stories, but this is laid out in an odd way. It's more of a standard book with some small illustrations, but the text is so small, it's difficult to read, and the illustrations are not my cup of tea at all.

On top of that, these aren't spooky stories. These are fairytales, some slightly dark, but mostly not even remotely horror-related. If you'd handed my horror-loving self this book as a kid, I would've been incredibly let-down.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a fantastic little graphic novel about sex, puberty, relationships, and growing up in general for teens. It's super diverse and inclusive, with an entire section dedicated to queerness and gender identity as well as loads of casual references throughout the book. I also appreciate that it offers some insight into being aro and/or ace and how not everyone is going to want to have sex, pursue romantic relationships, etc., so kids shouldn't feel "weird" if they aren't interested in those things. I'll definitely be recommending this one to teens!

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!