Month: August 2017

The Social Butterfly – Beth Bracken

Illustrations – Sofia Cardoso

The Social Butterfly just broke my cute-meter! It’s such a lovely picture book with a great message and the sweetest illustrations.

Charlotte is a gorgeous purple butterfly who makes new friends everywhere she goes. She loves talking, singing and telling jokes, and she also loves school. When her constant chattering one day results in her friends missing out on eating lunch, not being able to concentrate on reading or their maths worksheet in class, or not hearing something important their teacher Miss Flora says, they each get upset with Charlotte. Charlotte talks to Miss Flora about her fears that her friends don’t like her anymore. Will Charlotte take Miss Flora’s advice?

This book has a great message for all of the young social butterflies out there about learning when it is appropriate to talk, laugh and play with your friends and when you need to be quiet and pay attention.

The writing style was engaging and the illustrations were adorable! The layout has been well thought out and the font choice complements the soft colour palette of the illustrations. The childrens’ expressions leave no room for confusion regarding what they’re feeling and the children themselves are simply the cutest little insects ever! The backgrounds are detailed and I loved the attention to detail. I especially loved Miss Flora’s chipped upside down teacup table.

After reading this book I had convinced myself I wanted to live in a mushroom and be friends with Charlotte. I think I want to be a butterfly as well but since my favourite colour is already taken, I may have to be blue instead.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read this book. This book would make a fantastic bedtime story and I’d also love to see it in schools and libraries. I’d enjoy reading this book over and over. Charlotte now has a place in my heart.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Charlotte loves talking, singing, and playing. What Charlotte doesn’t love is sitting still, being quiet, and listening, which is a big problem at school. Charlotte’s overly social ways interfere with her friendships and her learning. Will Charlotte be able to modify her behaviour and learn when to be social and when to be quiet? A sweet and relatable picture book story that shines a light on social behaviours.

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A Stegosaurus Would Not Make a Good Pirate – Thomas Kingsley Troupe

Illustrations – Steph Calvert

Ahoy, me mateys! This book were bein’ a fun ride. Chock full of colourful pictures and plenty o’ pirate characters, I enjoyed readin’ this story. Gary the Stegosaurus does his best t’ please Cap’n One-Tooth. Avast! He gets fired!

Gary was not bein’ the right size for pirate clothes, he be too big, his tail be too spiky, he not be eatin’ pirate food, and he not be good at countin’. Maybe there be ‘nother job perfect for a Stegosaurus, eh?

Cap’n Thomas Kingsley Troupe, ye did a good job. Cap’n Steph Calvert, ye drawin’ ability be full o’ whimsy. Lads and lasses, they be enjoyin’ this here book.

Thanks to me mateys at NetGalley and Capstone for givin’ me the opportunity to be tellin’ ’em what I be thinkin’ of it. Arrr!

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Gary the Stegosaurus wants to be a pirate. But then he gets the chance, things do NOT work out. Getting seasick is the least of Gary’s worries once he’s on that ship! This delightful picture book from the Dinosaur Dreams series includes discussion questions, an interactive look-and-find fact section, and dinosaur facts.

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Ink in Water: An Illustrated Memoir (Or, How I Kicked Anorexia’s Ass and Embraced Body Positivity) – Lacy J. Davis

Illustrations – Jim Kettner

Lacy J. Davis has nailed it in this graphic novel memoir of her battle with an eating disorder in Ink in Water. She bravely takes the reader on a journey with her from its inception with thoughts of not being good enough to the beginnings of food restriction and anorexia, to compulsively exercising and finally bulimia. We watch on as her world shrinks along with her body, as she shuts out friends while her obsession with her body takes hold. We’re taken inside her mind as she battles the thoughts telling her she’s too fat and we silently cheer her on from the sidelines as we watch her courageously fight to become healthy again and triumph over her demons.

While everyone fighting an eating disorder is on their own journey, Lacy takes us on an unflinching ride through hers. Not sugarcoating (yeah, I know, weird word to use in a review for a book about eating disorders) her struggles, yet ultimately giving us hope, this book will speak to everyone who has had, has or knows anyone with an eating disorder. People who can’t understand why they just don’t eat more or why they don’t just stop exercising so much will gain much needed insight into what life with an eating disorder looks and feels like.

There are as many stories behind why eating disorders begin as there are people struggling with them and what works for one person may not work for another as they work towards recovery. I applaud Lacy for showing us that recovery from eating disorders isn’t a success only path but that ultimately there is hope.

Jim Kettner’s illustrations are gritty and take us deeper into Lacy’s journey than we could have gone with words alone. We become a part of Lacy’s struggles and her grief, we’re inside her head listening to the voices telling her she’s not enough and we feel the hope that shines through despite her struggle.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and New Harbinger Publications, Inc. for the opportunity to read this graphic novel. If you have an eating disorder I encourage you to keep fighting, don’t stop searching until you find treatment that works for you and hold onto hope. Recovery is possible. Yes, even for you!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

At once punk rock and poignant, Ink in Water is the visceral and groundbreaking graphic memoir of a young woman’s devastating struggle with negative body image and eating disorders, and how she rose above her own destructive behaviours and feelings of inadequacy to live a life of strength and empowerment.

As a young artist living in Portland, Lacy Davis’ eating disorder began with the germ of an idea: a seed of a thought that told her she just wasn’t good enough. And like ink in water, that idea spread until it reached every corner of her being. This is the true story of Lacy’s journey into the self-destructive world of multiple eating disorders. It starts with a young and positive Lacy, trying to grapple with our culture’s body-image obsession and stay true to her riot grrrl roots. And while she initially succeeds in overcoming a nagging rumination about her body, a break up with a recovering addict starts her on a collision course with anorexia, health food obsession, and compulsive exercise addiction. At the request of her last real friend, she starts going to a twelve-step Overeaters Anonymous course, only to find that it conflicts with her punk feminist ideology.

Blending bold humor, a healthy dose of self-deprecation, vulnerability, literary storytelling, and dynamic and provocative artwork by illustrator Jim Kettner, Ink in Water is an unflinching, brutally honest look into the author’s mind: how she learned to take control of her damaging thoughts, redirect her perfectionism from self-destructive behaviours into writing and art, and how she committed herself to a life of health, strength, and nourishment.

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Fowl Language: The Struggle is Real – Brian Gordon

While I’m not a parent I still really enjoyed this book. The comics were funny and entirely relatable. Plus, the drawings are of ducks. What’s not to love about ducks?!

I’ve observed so many of these moments with friends’ kids, along with the sticky kids who always end up next to you in the checkout line and the ones playing the games with annoying music at the highest possible volume on their parent’s phone at the doctor’s surgery. Whenever I come across a Fowl Language moment I have such admiration for the way parents manage the seemingly impossible and usually think, ‘You poor things’ and feel myself wanting to give the frazzled parents a hug. Yet at the same time I’m probably also thinking, ‘This is reason number 638 why I don’t have kids’.

There’s always something cathartic about finding a “Me, too!” moment when you feel like you’re the only one going through something and parents are definitely going to find plenty of those in this book. This is a book that can used to reminisce – “Look what we survived!”, to encourage – “I think I can, I think I can” or possibly even as an effective form of birth control.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

The Internet sensation, Fowl Language Comics, is back with its second book, Fowl Language: The Struggle Is Real, the perfect parenting humor book for anyone who liked Toddlers Are A**holes!

He’s back, and he’s totally got parenting figured out this time. KIDDING.

It’s another collection of Fowl Language comics, ripped from the headlines of this author’s actual friggin’ life.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll swear. It’s almost exactly like a day of parenting, except without the annoying little people.

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Seagrass Dreams: A Counting Book – Kathleen Hanes

Illustrations – Chloe Bonfield

The illustrations were beautiful and are what drew me to this book in the first place. I liked that there were photos of the sea creatures towards the back of the book to complement the illustrations. The boundaries of the Collector Urchins didn’t seem distinct enough for a counting book but I loved all of the others.

I became confused about the target audience as I made my way through the book. After all, we’re talking about a counting book here so our audience is maybe 3, 4 or 5 years old? Please keep in mind that all of my questions and comments from here on relate to thinking of this book as being targeted towards 3 to 5 year olds.

The level of information conveyed seemed at too high a level for kids learning to count to 10. Perhaps the same sort of information could have been written in a more age appropriate way? I could see primary school age kids using some of the information found in this book for school projects but at the same time, what primary school child is going to want to open a book that teaches you to count to 10?

While I personally love glossaries I question why words are being used in a counting book that kids learning to count wouldn’t already know. I also think some of the explanations in the glossary needed a glossary of their own. Do kids who are learning to count to 10 know what an organism or crustacean are?

I waited for an explanation to go with the Chocolate Chip Sea Star that didn’t come so I expect there to be a series of conversations between parents and kids ending up somewhere in this territory… “But why can’t you eat the chocolate chips?!”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Seagrass Press for the opportunity to read this book. It really is a beautiful book. I just think it would have worked better if either the illustrations were paired with simpler explanations for a counting book or if the counting part was scrapped so the book could be gorgeous illustrations accompanying interesting facts.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Introduce your future marine biologist to all of the creatures who live in underwater foliage, and how to count from 1 to 11 in Seagrass Dreams.

Seagrass Dreams is a unique counting book and introduction to marine life that stars animals who make their home in the seagrass. Young children and their parents will love learning to count from 1 to 11 while they also meet a host of marine animals. You’ll be introduced to characters such as the toothy great barracuda, the gliding yellow stingray, the bucktooth parrotfish, and the chocolate chip sea star (not good for adding to cookies).

That isn’t all though! Seagrass Dreams will also teach you each animal’s common name, scientific name, natural habitat, and a whole lot more! This book is loaded with gorgeous illustrations which add a colorful and engaging element. Seagrass Dreams closes with a list of the common species of seagrasses, their scientific names, and where each can be found.

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If You Give a Man a Cookie: A Parody – Laura Numeroff

I loved the illustrations but the story didn’t work for me. I get that this was a parody of the author’s previous book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie but I didn’t find it funny. I found the story clichéd and annoying.

The man wants a cookie, then he wants milk, then he puts the empty milk container in the fridge, etc… I’m sure lots of people will love this book but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

#1 New York Times bestselling author Laura Numeroff, author of the hugely popular children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, offers this hilarious parody of her own book for the man in your life.

If you give a man a cookie … he’s going to want milk to go with it … God forbid he should get it himself.

If You Give a Man a Cookie is a woman’s commentary about her helpless man and the chain of events that leads him on a journey from the bed to the bathroom to the couch and back to bed at nightfall. 

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A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies: A Bedtime Book about the Coming Apocalypse – Paul Lewis

Illustrations – Ken Lamug

Now, this is my kind of book! I expect that the level of childlike joy I experienced while reading A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies and examining the gory illustrations shows just how much of a sick, sick puppy I am.

I inherited my warped sense of humour from my beloved Nan (the coolest person I’ve ever met) who, despite her adoration of cats and adoption of too many to count throughout her life, owned a well worn copy of 101 Uses for a Dead Cat by Simon Bond. This was one of my favourite books growing up. I would page through it every time I visited Nan and ended up buying my own copy as an adult. The humour in this book reminds me of Simon Bond’s.

My Nan would have loved A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies just as much as I do. Taking on some serious contenders for our impending doom, then adding verse that rhymes and lulls you into a false sense of security with the feel of a children’s bedtime story, Paul Lewis has done a fantastic job with this book.

The illustrations, mostly black and white with the appropriate splashes of red, bring the words to life (or should that be death…). Ken Lamug has captured the tale perfectly with simple yet detailed, devastating yet hilarious, scenes of destruction. I loved watching the father’s expression change throughout his reading of Aunt Dorcas’ thoughtful gift for Tim, her nephew.

I expect this book could be polarising but if you aren’t my kind of person I doubt you’d pick it up in the first place. For those who do pick it up, you’re in for a treat that I’m certain you’ll be compelled to read more than once.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. This has just become one of my favourite reads of the year.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A darkly comic fable that offers visions of the apocalypse for every letter of the alphabet.

Starting with a father whose son has been asking questions about global dangers, A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies takes us inside our worst fears, laughing at some and taking others seriously. With macabre verse and fantastically gory illustrations, it provides gallows humour for our doom-haunted times.

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The Adventures of Technicality Man – Jessica Meats

This sounds like a job for … Technicality Man?

When Alchemisto, an old-school villain, turns all water into blood and the world doesn’t go back to normal after the elaborately choreographed fight sequence, it’s up to Technicality Man to save the world. I don’t know if anyone is more surprised than Technicality Man when he actually does save the world.

After this unlikely triumph, Technicality Man decides he can’t go back to mediocrity so he interviews potential sidekicks to put together his own team, Contractually Obliged Multi-Powered Superentities Combating Imperativeness, or COMPSCI.

Can superheroes and supervillains unite against a common enemy set to destroy the Laws of Narrative Practice? Who’s catnapping all of the cats? Who’s playing that ominous background music? Oh, and what time is my interview for a place on a super team?

What Scream did for horror movies, The Adventures of Technicality Man does for superheroes and supervillains. I loved this book! Jessica Meats has taken the Mickey out of every superhero/villain cliché you can think of and more! It’s a quick and easy read, but it’s so funny and clever. I just wish I’d thought of the concept first as this book would have been just as much fun to write as it was to read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book. This is a super spoof and should be in the hands of super fans, young and not so young, everywhere. Just don’t mention Superm…!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Everyone knows how the stories are supposed to go. The good guys win in the end, the hero ends up with the designated love interest, and the plucky band of misfits pulls together to save the world. 

But what happens when a villain targets the nature of stories themselves? All the tropes that the heroes have come to rely on are under threat. 

Technicality Man and his trusty companion Continuity Leopard must join forces with a group of minor heroes to save the day. They won’t let any barrier stop them. Not even the fourth wall.

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The Creeps – Fran Krause

I loved this book! With quirky illustrations, these comics tapped into urban legends, campfire stories and other irrational (or so we’re made to believe) fears we already have, along with some new ones spawned during reading The Creeps.

While reading I vacillated between “Me, too!!” and “Oh, I never thought about that before”, the whole time with a potentially creepy grin plastered on my face. I was compelled to read this book from cover to cover as soon as I received it, which unfortunately was in the morning.

My second reading will definitely take place at night in the dark, with only the light of my iPad protecting me from the ghosts surrounding me and the creature under the bed ready to hold my hand during the night if I dare fall asleep with my arm hanging over the side of the bed.

The Creeps is delightfully creepy but it’s also funny, imaginative and sometimes all too real (in a fun way). I’ll be revisiting this book many times and will be recommending it to my fellow eccentrics and everyone I know with a sense of humour.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Ten Speed Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Illustrator, animator, teacher, and comic artist Fran Krause has touched a collective nerve with his wildly popular web comic series – and subsequent New York Times best-selling book – Deep Dark Fears. Here he brings readers more of the creepy, funny, and idiosyncratic fears they love illustrated in comic form -– such as the fear that your pets will tell other animals all your embarrassing secrets, or that someone uses your house while you’re not home -– as well as two longer comic short-stories about ghosts. 

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Lady Stuff: Secrets to Being a Woman – Loryn Brantz

The comics in this book are broken up into sections: grooming and habitat maintenance, life ambitions, mating habits, self-care and social conduct. I started out relating to a lot of the comics early in the book but then realised that I’d already seen all of the good ones on the internet and didn’t really enjoy or relate to the rest.

It’s possible I’m too old for some of the humour and it would work better for women in their late teens or early 20’s. It’s a cute gift book but I wouldn’t personally read it more than once. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A collection of Loryn Brantz’s vibrant and relatable Jellybean Comics about her everyday experiences as a lady.

Home manicure tips, awkward seduction techniques, scoping out the snack table, and — most important — prioritising naps: Lady Stuff reveals these womanly secrets and more. In sections like “Grooming and Habitat Maintenance,” “Mating Habits,” and others, these brightly coloured, adorable comics find the humour in the awkwardness of simply existing.

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