OMG!  Get a copy and read this book NOW!!  It is soooo Good.  Zuli has spent her life with the Great Tree.  As far as she knows, she is the only one of her kind.  When the souls of birds get lost on their way to the Great Tree, Zuli adventures outside her realm, into a new one, to save all those who are lost.  Along the way she will meet dragons, goblins, griffins, manticore, etc.  This story is amazing.  Coming from Marjorie Liu I am not surprised.  Plus, the illustrations, are phenomenal.  They are so bright and colorful.  They look like top quality movie stills put on a non-moving platform.  If you are a fan of old school fantasy animated stories like the Last Unicorn, the animated Lord of the Rings, etc you will love this. It will be a series and even with a cliffhanger you will absolutely love this book!  

 

There is some debate if this is “gothic”.  To me, yes.  I find it very reminiscent of the look and feel of Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak.  Lakesedge is a “poisoned” estate.  The lake is black and dangerous and has caused the death of many people.  And the rumor is that Rowan, the current lord of the land, used the lake to kill his family.  All most anyone really knows is that he is dark, mysterious, and moody.  Violeta is just a young woman trying to protect her brother from a world that does not know or understand him. Leta doesn’t really know him either.  She just knows he has nightmares.  But these are more than nightmares.  It is his dark alchemist powers that are growing everyday, and Rowan needs his help to drive bac the poison at Lakesedge.  But this story is so much more than that.  Leta herself is very special as well, she can call to the Lord Under. He saved her years ago when she was driven from her home with her young brother.  And now he is back, and will complicate things at Lakes Edge. 

 

I really enjoyed this book.  It was haunting and dark, and as mentioned before it feels like Crimson Peak, crossed between A Court of Mist and Fury.  Huh?  That’s right.  Rowan and Lord Under remind me a bit of Tamlin and Rhys. (Please be aware I have only read the first book of that series).  One thinks the other is evil, but still needs their help to keep a kingdom peaceful or at least under control.  

 

The sequel to this is out soon, and based on blurb alone, I feel it may go the way of ACTAR, but I sure hope not.  I loved the quite story between Leta and Rowan.  It has its dark parts, and two people finding light in each other.  The side characters are just as compelling.  We shall see where the story goes, because unfortunately, this one ends on a cliffhanger.  

 

This is a local artist’s graphic novel that was a little hard to find. It came up in a list of detective graphic novels. While this book is a detective story it’s all over the place. There is the original case where the detectives are trying to find a man named Chow in Chinatown. Then the second story is about a dead man who was mauled and what kind of animal mauled them. The story is way too short. It’s one of three books, but nothing happens other than a lot of gunplay.  There are no clues, or no real anything to the mystery. I think the illustrations are well done and I would like to see more from this illustrator but as a story writer, they need a little help, a little practice 

 

There are various books that explain homelessness for children. What makes this book different is that the kids never say they’re homeless. To them it’s just various versions of home. Sometimes it somewhere, sometimes it’s anywhere, and sometimes it’s nowhere, but since they are family, and they are together they are home.  This book is written to show empathy and it does a fantastic job of it and I would suggest it for any library collection 

 

This is an interesting book for body autonomy. I originally thought this was going to be more information about quokkas not being friendly or something similar. But that’s not what this is.  It’s a fun rhyming story that is all about when someone doesn’t want a hug. It’s OK to not want to hug, no matter how approachable someone may be. I love the story! The rhymes can be a little harsh at times but overall, it works. The illustrations are fun, bright, and will keep the readers interested. Plus, learning about a new animal whose name begins with a Q can make for lots of storytime joviality. 

 

This is an immigration story with no ending. A young girl has her father taken away because he doesn’t have papers. While she is native born and so is her mom, her father is an undocumented immigrant and he shipped off to a detention center. Our little girl does get to visit her father in the detention center but doesn’t want anyone to know. She has to learn when is it OK to not keep a secret, when is it OK to ask for help, and when is it OK to find happy moments in the midst of something terrible. I hate that this book exists. I hate that we need this book and many like it. However this book is incredibly well done with wonderful illustrations. This book should be held in most public libraries to explain the world as it currently exists. 

 

There’s infighting between the mom and the subordinate. The kids have their plan, they’ve told at least two others of the end, and what’s going on. There are by the end of this book only six days until the plan to escape but before they can inspect escape they have to inspect. This volume was a little slow going I is very wordy but still I need to know what happens next so on to book four. 

 

What is better than a love story?  Two!  And that is just what we get with Happily Ever Island.  Madison has no idea what she wants to do.  She is in college but has no direction.  Her best friend Laine is a science geek and is on a solid path to medical school.  Lanie has no time for anything but work, study, and class while Madison is more worried about her girlfriend and their breakup.  One thing Madison had planed was to win a trip to Happily Ever Island; a new Disney experience where one lives as their favorite character.  However, after hearing her now ex-girlfriend say something mean, she knows what she needs to do.  She needs to give her second ticket to her best friend instead.  Lanie needs a break and is on the edge of burnout.  So off they go on this gratis Disney adventure.  Madison knows she needs to lay off the “love” but she can’t help herself.  There are so many cute girls.  And Lanie, has no time for love, but Prince Charming is something else.  I half expected the book to try and get the two friends together, but they are allowed to remain friends and find new loves perfect for their personality.  So, we the reader, get a traditional love story, and a sapphic love story in one book.  Both stories are so cute.  The entire book works well and will have the reader flipping pages to find out what happens next.  Because for Disney master Madison, nothing goes as planned (she is Cinderella after all), while Lanie, who barely knows the movies or the characters, has her unknown dreams come true.  This book was a joy to read and now I want my own Happily Ever Island Disney experience.

 This book was just added to our Illinois author collection.   It’s a very fun story for an independent picture book. It’s about a little dinosaur who instead of yawning she roars and it wakes up all the other sleepy little kids in around the neighborhood. The author does a decent job rhyming although the cadence is lackadaisical and the ending feels rushed. It feels like there’s a stanza missing at the end. Overall I really like this book and I believe it is the author’s first. With more practice they’re just going to get better.  I’d read this for story time and I buy it for local libraries. Do I think in 20 years it will still be on library shelves- maybe not. However with more practice, that maybe could be turned into a yes. The illustrations are really nice and the roar page is my favorite. I do wish there was more for to the story and that the subtitle wasn’t so long but otherwise not a bad read. 

 

This was an interesting way to learn about a historical topic rarely seen in most schools. It starts out with a letter of introduction from a LGBTQ historian. The graphic novel is a group of three modern kids helping their abuela move and they find a picture of her with another woman. Abuela she starts telling them what it used to be like before being bisexual was considered okay. She not only tells them about it she decides to show them and somehow magically transfers them back to 1969. She takes them to the Stonewall Inn but doesn’t pay attention to the date. They just so happen to get there on the date the riots start. I was under the assumption that the riots were a one night event but this made it sound like it was a few nights. In the back the author even admits that some things are not true.  Obviously the two major figures in the stonewall riots did not meet three time traveling kids, however the author does make a very good point that history looks different to different people. So while there is no “official” account of what happened at Stonewall there are multiple different perspectives.  After talking about stonewall the book goes both forward and backward into the LGBTQ movement including the fight, gay marriage, various alliances, and organizations, etc. Overall this book was a successful introduction to the topic that would be good for middle school and might get other kids interested in finding out what really happened.