kailey_luminouslibro's Reviews (3.79k)

Shuna is the young prince of a poor valley land with few crops and starving citizens. An old man travels into the valley and tells Shuna about a land with bountiful wheat. Shuna leaves on a journey to bring back seeds from this land. He rides through many dangers and encounters a land full of slave traders. He rescues two sisters from the slavers, and they travel together to the edge of the land of the gods where Shuna is hoping he will find the wheat.

I loved this beautiful graphic novel! The art work is so gorgeous and a lot of the style elements remind me of some of Miyazaki's Ghibli movies.

The story is very imaginative and sometimes wildly weird. It flows along with a lot of exciting scenes and thoughtful moments.

I love that Shuna is so determined to help his people. He has a kind and tender heart, but he is also very tough and resilient. He can be sort of grim and serious, but he has a gentleness about him too. Such a wonderful character!

Clementine is a lab mouse. A genetic experiment has given her super-intelligence and she does her best to solve every maze and puzzle that the team of scientists give her. Clementine befriends a chimp named Rosie in one of the lab cages. When a scientist with a guilty conscience sets Clementine free, she begins a wild journey to prove her worth and hopefully save Rosie from the lab too. In the meantime, Clementine writes letters to Rosie (which are never written or posted) and tells Rosie all her adventures.

This was such a cute book! I love stories about mice and how the little guy has the courage and tenacity to stand up to the giants around them.

The story is very thoughtful and emotional as Clementine reflects on what it means to find freedom. She thinks deeply about the nature of connection and friendship between species. As those around her realize just how intelligent she is, she doesn't let that define her. Her big heart and her courage are what make her the "person" she is.

I really liked all the human characters in the story! They have such varied personalities and their own backstories and internal struggles. Clementine inspires them with her quiet courage, and their lives are changed as a result.

The epistolary writing style is kind of weird, since it is a mouse writing to a chimpanzee. And they aren't written letters, they are mental letters that Clementine is memorizing to tell Rosie later when they meet again. The narration is from Clementine's POV which I liked. But the verb tense keeps changing from past tense to present tense. I found that oddly jarring.


Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

Milo begins the school year at his new school, one of the highest ranking schools in the world. He and his two best friends are thrilled to have been accepted into this elite school until they meet the headmaster, Dr. Pummelcrush. The older students act like mindless zombies, going to classes, eating the disgusting food, and never breaking any rules. Milo begins to suspect that they might be brainwashed. He discovers a garden hidden away on the school grounds. In the garden, he meets a teacher who used to teach philosophy (before the school banned the class because it made students think for themselves). Milo and his friends start to learn all they can about philosophy, hoping that an open mindset will help them to resist being brainwashed.

This was such a fun story! I liked the crazy school setting with all the insane rules and robot technology spying on the students and monitoring their every move.

Milo is an interesting character. I liked that he is so energetic and eager to learn. He has a creative spirit that will not be squashed by boring classes!

The plot is pretty straightforward. There are no major twists or surprises. I wasn't sure why the plot was dragged out for so long. Milo had several opportunities to act, to jump up and shout out the truth, to attack the bad guys and save his friends, but he doesn't do it. He bides his time, waiting for.... something. I don't know.

The pacing is a little weird. There were several places in the story that were the right time for action, but there was nothing. They just sit around and talk.

When the children have philosophy discussions with the garden teacher, they say that they will question everything. They can't take anything for granted. They have to follow the line of questions through a topic and discuss all the possibilities. But they don't actually do that.
I got frustrated with the philosophy dialogue, because it is skewed in a particular direction, leading the conversation down a certain path and not really asking honest questions. It felt like that author was preaching their own ideology, instead of it being a real discussion between kids.
There are discussions about God, vegetarians, pollution, immortality, the origin of the universe, and a bunch of other things. It starts out fine but then gets skewed in the direction that the author is pushing.

Overall this was a fun book! My favorite part was the quote where Milo wrote on his paper that he wants to be a musician when he grows up. The headmaster says, "...you want to be 'a musician'? Good grief. You must grow up and stop acting so childish. Stop fantasizing and get real."
Haha! I'm a musician, and I found that part hilarious!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

I ended up DNFing this book after reading other reviews that say that Han Solo and Chewbacca are only in the first chapter. So I read the first chapter, tried the second chapter, got bored and gave up.

I don't super love the art style. Han looks like his face is all distorted or something. The aliens look cool, but that's because they are supposed to be distorted and weird-looking.

The story was okay. Not great, but sort of fun. I did not like the constant flashbacks, and I didn't care about any of the other characters other than Han and Chewie. I just lost interest. A good story should make you care about the characters and bring an emotional element into the plot, but this one didn't. The heist plot wasn't particularly exciting either, but maybe it got better later in the book.

Hannah is the owner of the Cookie Jar bakery. When the delivery guy is late, she goes out to the alley and finds his body. Her brother-in-law is the police detective on the case, and he asks for Hannah's help. She hears all the gossip at the bakery and their small town neighbors might be more willing to talk to her than to a police officer. Hannah begins to poke around, discovering secrets and mysteries, but only one clue will eventually lead to the killer.

This was such a fun mystery! I loved that there are several cookie recipes included, and I even tried one of them! I baked the Chocolate Chip Crunchies with corn flakes in the cookie batter, and they were delicious. My whole family loved them!

I got a little bogged down in all the lengthy descriptions of food though. I ended up skimming paragraphs and paragraphs of food descriptions. Maybe if you are a foodie/gourmet then you would enjoy it. It slowed down the plot though.

Even aside from the long descriptions, the plot dragged a bit slow. If you want a restful sort of mystery, then this would be great. But I felt like the whole story could have been condensed a little.

I lost track of all the myriad of small town neighbors. I remembered about twelve of the main group of characters, and after that I couldn't remember who they all were or what their names were. There are just too many characters!

The writing style is really good, and the pacing flows along nicely. The mystery itself has lots of twists and turns and revelations. I had no idea until the very end who the killer could be!

There is one really nasty description of sexual harassment that absolutely horrified me, and there is a character who is beat up from domestic abuse, but other than that it's a clean book with no profanity or graphic violence.

The author postulates what subjects might arise if you had lunch with Lewis. Taking quotes from Lewis' written works, we can guess what direction the conversation would take and generalize things that Lewis would probably say. However, this is not a book of imagined dialogue. It is a compilation of generalizations and paraphrases about what the author thinks Lewis would be likely to think and say on certain topics.

There are chapters about finding meaning in life, friendship, grief, education, hope, and faith. There are chapters about Narnia and how they illustrate the importance of imagination and storytelling. Each chapter begins by posing a question about a certain topic, then the author details some history from Lewis' life that show how he experienced friendship or grief or hope or faith. Then we dive further into the topic with deeper explanations of what Lewis wrote and said about the topic. It was nice to see how certain of Lewis' life events directly corelate to his writing and philosophy.

I did not like that the author often repeats themselves, sometimes using the exact same Lewis quote again and again. It made the writing a little tiresome and annoying.

But I did like that the author doesn't just accept that every little thing Lewis ever said was golden. He questions and analyzes and criticizes Lewis' spiritual ideas, mostly approving and supporting Lewis' reasoning, but always leading the reader to think it through for themselves.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this very much!

This manga adaptation of Williams Shakespeare's Hamlet is the perfect way to introduce Shakespeare to readers who might feel intimidated by the original play. The text is modernized, but still captures the original style of Shakespeare. The entire play is intact, and all the beauty of Shakespeare's words comes through wonderfully in this modern adaptation.

I am so impressed with the way the text was modernized, and with the integrity and thoughtfulness that went into editing it. It really does feel like something that Shakespeare would have written if he had been alive today. There is no jarring modern slang to ruin the beauty of the lines. It feels like someone just translated the words from another language, and made it easy to understand for modern readers, but without losing any of the flavor and emotion of the original text.

The beautiful artwork brings the play to life! Every page is just so gorgeous! The art is delicate and attractive. I love the designs for each character. Hamlet is serious and brooding, then suddenly wild and laughing when he is pretending to be crazy. You can really see his different moods through his expressions and body language. Even the shadows around him and little details in his clothing show how his mood changes.

Every character is so expressive and dramatic! Their clothing, their facial expressions, their hair and eyes and body language; it all comes together to paint the perfect picture of these characters. They really come to life!

I have read the original play a couple of times and it was wonderful to see how this wild drama is adapted into manga form! Hamlet is such a tragic figure, and this book perfectly captures the tragedy and ferocity of the story.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

Harley travels around the world with her archeologist dad, visiting historic sites and learning about ancient legends. While in Jamaica, Harley hears the legend of the Perla Azul (The Blue Pearl). If the pearl ever touches dry land, a hurricane and earthquake could wipe out the entire island. It already happened once before in 1692 when a young pirate boy witnessed the destruction of half the town of Port Royal. Most of the town sank below the waves and still lies buried in the sand. Harley and her friends discover that the pirate boy wrote a diary where he left behind clues to the pearl's location in the sunken city. Harley has to find the pearl before her archeologist father and his diving team stumble across it and bring it back to land!

This is a fun story with a lot of mystery and adventure! I liked the puzzle aspects of the story where Harley has to decode a secret message or encryption. The plot is not very complex, but it kept my attention. The writing style is good, but kind of simplistic, which fits the target age range.

I really loved Harley's character. She gets terrible seasickness, but she forces herself to cope with situations where she has to board a boat or ship. She pushes herself to the limits of her endurance and exhibits a lot of courage. I liked that she has a personal inward journey to face her fears.

In this second book of the series, I especially liked that Harley has to rely on her instincts to determine who to trust. She meets new people and some of them appear to be lying to her. She follows her gut and has a lot of emotional awareness in dealing with people.

The illustrations are really well done and bring the story to life! I like the cartoony style, but I wish the artwork was in color instead of black and white.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

In this final book of the series, Cruz and his friends are looking for the final piece of the puzzle that his mother left for him before she died. With time running out, the bad guys will take any risk to stop Cruz from finishing his quest. Dangers surround Cruz on every side, and someone close to him is feeding information to the enemy.

The conclusion to this series absolutely blew my mind! I had no idea what was coming, and was completely surprised. I loved the way the whole story came together for a satisfying conclusion. The adventure is fantastic, and it's really interesting to learn about all the historic sites that the characters visit.

I just adore these characters! They each have some good development and I love their different personalities. Cruz is such an amazing main character. He surprises me in every book!

I really enjoyed the writing style, which has both some serious situations and some humor to keep things light. The pacing is excellent. The writing kept my attention and had me turning those pages.

Cruz and his friends travel to Antarctica where they go on a mission to observe a colony of penguins. They trek through the wilderness of Argentina looking for fossils, and we get to learn about archeology.

The artwork is a cool mixture of illustrations overlaid on top of real photographs, and it adds a wonderful dimension and depth to the story. I loved seeing the characters brought to life in the artwork, as well as the beautiful locations they visit. It really makes a special addition to the story!

The fictional technology is really cool. There is technology that can scan through dirt and rock to find and identify fossils. One of the explorer students even develops a device that can send chemical signals to trees to send and receive messages from trees! Mell, the honeybee robot drone, was very busy in this book, counting thousands of penguins to get an accurate count of the Antarctic colony. I just love that cute little bee!


Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

Harley travels around the world with her archeologist dad, visiting historic sites and learning about ancient legends. While in Guatemala, Harley learns the legend of the three Mayan kings. If the statues containing their souls are ever reunited, the three kings could return with an army of the dead to conquer the world. Harley and her friends must stop thieves from stealing the statues. When she discovers a secret message, Harley doesn't know who to trust.

This is a fun story with a lot of mystery and adventure! I liked the puzzle aspects of the story where Harley has to decode a secret message or encryption. The plot is not very complex, but it kept my attention. The writing style is good, but kind of simplistic, which fits the target age range.

I really loved Harley's character. She is afraid of heights, but forces herself to cope with situations where she has to climb trees or go to the top of a Mayan pyramid. She pushes herself to the limits of her endurance and exhibits a lot of courage. I liked that she has a personal inward journey to face her fears.

The illustrations are really well done and bring the story to life! I like the cartoony style, but I wish the artwork was in color instead of black and white.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.