I have two thoughts about this book.  I really like it, I think it is funny, I love all the animals and the illustrations are hilarious.  They propel this book that much more forward.  However, I hate the dad and the pet store owner.  The dad doesn’t pay attention and the pet store owner takes advantage of a kid with unlimited use of her dad’s credit card.  Overall this book is a fun read, and it gives me the same feeling a Dahl book does, great kids, terrible parents.  

 What do you get when you take Heathers, Valley Girl, and Clueless, throw them in a mixing bowl and add some supernatural elements?  You get Squad.  This was such a fun graphic novel.  It takes place currently, but between the language elements, the dress and attitude, the other references perfectly fit.  Squad takes a girl who is new, and feels left out and makes her into someone popular.  But popularity comes with chains. And in this case those chains are bloody!  This book is real when it needs to be, but a great creepy roller coaster the rest of the time.  It’s female centric, a bit sapphic, and all feminist, both good and bad.  I can't say much else without giving anything away, but if you want a howling good time this October, pick up this book.  

 This middle grade graphic novel would also work for elementary school. Three girls have to do a school assignment together.  Gwen and Lisa are friends, and Mel is boisterous, daring, and not part of the “friends” group...yet.  Mel is the popular one who doesn’t stop talking about shopping, clothes, shoes, etc.  But when Lulu (Gwen’s sister) is missing, Mel is right there to help find her.  This is a set up story to a longer series about these three girls becoming superheroes, a talking rat, and the scientist sister who is smart but in the hands of an evil professor.  This story was quite fun and I think readers would really like it.  The world building is a bit lacking.  The author glosses over how the girls get their powers.  One minute they are not there, the next they are.  Plus at the end how they become the Rainbow Girls is underdeveloped.  Written like a Rainbow Fairies book for someone much younger.  Overall this book is successful and would find checkouts in libraries, but I hope future volumes have better development. 

 I love this book.  This book plainly lays out ways for kids to talk about their transgendered parents.  Everything is normal.  It may have been odd at first, but mom is still mom, even if his pronouns are now he/him.  I think this is good representation for libraries, but am well aware there will be a certain faction of people who think these should be banned from libraries.  There is also a companion book called She’s my Dad, and I think they would make excellent additions to libraries, or to households with a transiting family member. 

 The illustrations in this book are amazing.  They are bright, colorful, funny, engaging, entertaining, and full of action.  Now if only the words could live up to that.  It’s a standard counting book “two happy crocodiles with sharp, white, teeth!”.  The words fall flat.  Maybe if the author tried to rhyme each number stanza this book would have been better. 

 I was really enjoying this book until it seemed to end in the middle of the story.  Our main character is called Meow.  They are not a cat, but everyone calls them Meow.  Probably because they act like a cat.  This was a fun romp with the main character stating that they do not like being like everyone else, and doing what everyone else does.  It is very fun and imaginative.  The ride is wild, and ends with Meow being surrounded by monkeys and other kids.  But the book ends there.  They decide to still not act like everyone else.  I guess from the pictures the reader is supposed to infer that they all decided to party, but from the story side it just ended.  No words to get from angry beings surrounding Meow to everyone following Meow.  The ending just doesn't work for me.  But the first half is a riot to read. 

 

TW - Blood, Gore, Sexual Assault, other extreme Horror

The planet is still in the midst of the Covid pandemic.  It is nowhere near a resolution.  And as bad as we may think we have it now, it could be worse.  It could be a lot worse.  In Crueler than Dead a virus is turning people into zombies or Oz as they are called in the book.  We open and find out that one woman, and one boy have gotten an experimental vaccine and it worked!.  Now they must survive the trip from the laboratory to the Tokyo Dome to get the vaccine, replicate it, and get it to the Oz and turn them back into humans.  There are some holes in the plot.  The main point of the book is the gore, so it makes me wonder if you gave these Oz the vaccine to be human again, what about the holes and pieces of flesh that have been torn off?  You would have to read the book to get why I ask that.  Over all this book is interesting.  It’s not fresh or new, but it’s interesting.  And it leaves the reader wanting volume 2 right away.

#Bookspin

 

 Another Great Beginning bio for LPBW.  This look at a current media figure is well done, interesting and a great story for anyone. 

 This was not what I thought it would be and that is great.  It’s a collection of comics/graphics the writer put online as a way of dealing with anxiety and depression.  This isn't professional help, but someone going through what many people do and wanting to share what worked for them.  Overall I found it interesting and elicited a chuckle. 

 

 too crass and very boring.