I was drawn to Keezy Young’s Taproot by the paranormal story elements and the interesting use of muted colours on the cover. Both indicated that this graphic novel would stand apart from others I’ve previously read. While I’m used to graphic novels that are brightly coloured and full of action sequences, I felt like I was floating through a dream while reading Taproot.
Hamal has been able to see ghosts since childhood when he thought they were imaginary friends. Hamal works as a gardener at Mr. Takashi’s Flowers and has conversations with his ghost friends while he’s working, which causes his boss and customers to find him odd but he’s so good at his job that it doesn’t cause him any real problems.
I’m usually quite allergic to love stories but this one between Hamal, the gardener and Blue, the ghost was so sweet that my allergy didn’t flare up once. Blue was lonely when he first started hanging around Hamal. Blue was shocked to learn that Hamal could see and communicate with ghosts. A friendship formed between the two before blossoming into mutual love.
Besides his friendship and love with Blue, Hamal is also friends with two ghostie girls, Joey who is a child and April, a mischievous teenager. All three are in-betweeners, ghosts that for whatever reason haven’t moved on yet.
Something strange is happening in the spirit world. The ghosts are being pulled into a dark forest for short periods of time but no one knows why. One time Blue is pulled into this mysterious forest he meets a reaper who wants to make a deal. Will Blue make the ultimate sacrifice for love?
I did have a bit of trouble connecting all of the dots during my first read as there was a lot covered in a short story and it seemed to jump around a bit. I enjoyed my second run through a lot more and found it a much more cohesive and satisfying read, getting my head around connections I’d missed the first time.
I loved the use of colour throughout this graphic novel, with the contrast between a dominance of soft greens and blues in Hamal’s world and the harsh black and dull greys and browns of the forest. The colours and style of Keezy Young’s illustrations added to the overall mood of the graphic novel, something that would have been diminished had bright colours been used. I adored the continued use of flowers throughout the story.
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Lion Forge and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Blue is having a hard time moving on. He’s in love with his best friend. He’s also dead. Luckily, Hamal can see ghosts, leaving Blue free to haunt him to his heart’s content. But something eerie is happening in town, leaving the local afterlife unsettled, and when Blue realizes Hamal’s strange ability may be putting him in danger, Blue has to find a way to protect him, even if it means … leaving him.
Well, here it is! The book that inspired 🦄 Unicorn Month! 🦄
I love this little book of unicorn wisdom! I just wish it was longer because I didn’t want it to end. Unicorn has got it all figured out. He lives in the moment, looks for the good in others, accepts himself for who he is and takes time to enjoy himself.
Sarah Ford gives the reader simple, bite sized pieces of self care that for some reason feel easier to apply to your life because a unicorn is the one dispensing the wisdom. Regardless of your mindset at the start I doubt anyone could make it through this book without a smile on their face and at least one cheeky chuckle.
Anita Mangan’s illustrations are just perfect. What would have been a cute book without the pictures turns into something you want to return to again and again with them. I fell in love with this quirky, adorable unicorn. You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a unicorn giving you a toothy smile or pole dancing. I had several smirks and chuckles during the book but my bursting out laughing moment came when Unicorn jumped in the puddles.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. I’m going to be returning to this book whenever I need to recharge, smile and receive a gentle reminder that self care is a necessity, not a luxury.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Being a person is getting too complicated. Time to be a unicorn.
This little book of positivity features everyone’s favourite mythical creature. Each adorably illustrated spread includes a funny or inspiring piece of advice, reminding you to follow your dreams, and always think unicorn. The perfect gift for a friend in need of a boost, this cute and covetable book is bound to spread smiles wherever it goes!
Multiverse!!! So satisfied and happy and my imagination is firing all over the place and I wanna go on that ride again!!! Dialling … 1-2-3-0-0 …
I did the Dory thing with The Switch. I was so excited to read it and then before I started I got distracted by “ooh look, a book!”. New ones piled up and while this one wasn’t forgotten it lay in the middle of my brain trying desperately to climb its way to the top. So I’m late reading this one and kicking myself for it because I could’ve been living in Jacobus’ worlds weeks ago! Well, I’m here now and wow, what a ride!
The moral to this story (option 1): If you see a switch in a red house on a truck that’s not connected to electricity yet has a lightbulb turned on inside and there’s a sign in Latin next to the switch, maybe pop those words into Google and translate them before you flick the switch. Unless you’re Jacobus or Connor. If you are, just go for it!!!
As I was reading this book I kept thinking back to being obsessed with The Butterfly Effect when the first movie was released. For me, this was so many levels above The Butterfly Effect. The characters in this book weren’t the only travellers. I travelled with them through all of the worlds and I want to experience it all over again. I don’t know the last time I used this word but I kept thinking as I was reading that this book is exquisite. Father and son team A.W. Hill and Nathanael Hill have exploded my brain in such a wonderful way!
It is deep, so deep you could get in over your head if you don’t pay attention but if you take the time to read carefully, you’ll be rewarded greatly. The way that the knowledge of how travelling works is doled out in bite sized pieces is fantastic because otherwise my brain could have exploded from information overload instead, but as the characters learned more, I learned more. Then each time my brain said, “But hold on. How does that work? Why did that happen?”, one of the characters would ask something similar and my answer would come, usually from sweet, adorable, geeky, wise, catcher outfit wearing Gordon.
I know just enough sciencey stuff to be dangerous but not enough to be able to discuss the scientific validity of the events in this book so I’ll leave that for a different breed of nerd. However I was given the imagination bone (Huh? It’s not a bone?) and from an imagination standpoint, the authors get a jumping up and down ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me. As a token of my appreciation I gathered each star from a different world for them and boy, was it awkward carrying them all home!
Some serious thought has gone into the way the universes work in The Switch – which rules apply universally, which rules rely on whether you pulled a switch or not, which parts of you remain you regardless of the universe you’re in.
I love a story that whets my appetite and makes me want to learn more. The Switch did that for me. I’ve had Brian Greene’s The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos calling me for way too long and I long to read that and then come back to experience The Switch again, this time as a sciencey-type person.
The moral to this story (option 2): The grass is not always greener on the other side. Who knows whether their grass is green or if they even have grass over there at all?!
In case you can’t tell, I loved this book. I loved the characters. I loved the concept. I loved the execution. I love that it got my brain all tingly, wanting to learn. I love that it got my imagination doing gymnastics in my mind. I love the message that our choices have the power to change our world.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Curiosity Quills Press for the opportunity to read this book.
And now it’s time for a word from our sponsor:
Why does the food always sound so amazing when you’re reading?! This time it was a chocolate donut. Now, personally I prefer pink donuts but here I am reading about this supermarket chocolate one and all of a sudden I’m desperately craving it. So, I’ve decided there’s an untapped market out there.
There needs to be a service where food and drink companies make a deal with publishing companies so if you crave food that’s in your book you double tap the word/s and that sends an instant message to the service in your area. Someone from that service then drives to your house, knocks on your front door and says something like, “Please enjoy this complementary chocolate donut from the good folks at Krispy Kreme and Curiosity Quills Press.”
OK, stay with me. This may sound like an expensive marketing tool but if you think about it, the next time you want a donut you’re going to remember that freebie and you’re likely to choose that brand over the one that’s never done anything nice for you. The same thing could work for TV. Hmm.. [sound of brain cells hissing as they attempt to ignite] * ring, ring * “Hi, is that Shark Tank?” 🦈
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Imagine that you could change your world with the flip of a switch. You might be prettier, more athletic, more popular, or even living on an exotic island, because your history — your world line — would be different. But here’s the catch: you have no way of knowing if the reality on the other side of that switch will be better … or much worse.
Jacobus Rose is a fifteen year-old who believes — as many fifteen year-olds do — that his life could use improvement. School is a numbing routine, and his parents’ marriage seems to be imploding before his eyes. ‘Maybe I was born into the wrong world,’ he thinks. Lured by his best friend, Connor, into a strange little house containing nothing but empty rooms and an oversized circuit breaker, he’ll discover that reality comes in a plural form, and that our choices create a continuous web of branching worlds, any of which is as ‘real’ as another.
A solo odyssey becomes a duo, a trio, and then a quartet, as Jacobus befriends other interdimensional travelers along the way: Gordon Nightshade, the veteran pilgrim and chief theorist; Moses deWitt, the alley cat with an old soul; Jemma Doone, a girl of many-worlds who becomes the main river home for Jacobus and his crew; and finally, his lost friend Connor, who just may have preferred an alternate universe to his own.
The Switch is the story of their journey home. The question is: if they get there, will it be the same place they left behind?
After my love of dragons was encouraged by Margaret Hillert’s Es Halloween, querido dragón / It’s Halloween, Dear Dragon I scoured NetGalley for more books by this author and illustrator, Jack Pullan.
In Who Feels Mad, Dear Dragon?, Dear Dragon and unnamed boy have both got their cranky pants on. No matter what they’re asked to do, they simply don’t want to. Mother and father each tell them not to get mad and after doing the activity they were spitting the dummy over, unnamed boy and Dear Dragon decide they either enjoyed the activity or that it was good for them after all. A lot of the activities centred around going to bed. Dear Dragon and unnamed boy get up the next day with a new attitude, decide that they won’t get mad and will have a good day.
Now, these parents must be saints, remaining calm regardless of their child and dragon’s bad behaviour. Personally I was disappointed that not once was an apology given by the boy or dragon and there didn’t appear to be any consequences at all for their bad behaviour. The boy attends school so surely he’s too old to be chucking tantrums where he’s laying in bed after being tucked in with the covers off, kicking and punching the air, isn’t he? I wouldn’t have gotten away with behaviour like that without consequences at any age.
Frustrations aside, this book is part of the Beginning-to-Read series and as I expect an adult will be reading this book to the child, at least initially, there is the opportunity for engagement with the child about Dear Dragon and unnamed boy’s behaviour. If I was reading this to a child I’d be getting them to think about the way the characters behaved, when they should have apologised, and how they could have better managed being mad about what they’d been asked to do.
There’s good use of word repetition and a Reading Reinforcement section at the back of the book that assists the adult to help the reader get more out of the book. The Reading Reinforcement has activities relating to phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and text comprehension. There’s also a list of the 73 words found in the book.
I love Jack Pullan’s illustrations again in this book. I liked the pictures in the Halloween Dear Dragon book more but that is solely due to the fun that could be had with that book’s subject matter. The illustrations in this book are still brightly coloured and well suited to the story. The expressions on Dear Dragon and unnamed boy’s faces clearly show when they are mad and when they are happy.
For a book that helps children learn to read, it seems to tick all of the right boxes. However, if I wanted a book to help teach a child how to deal with anger, I would be looking for one that has consequences for bad behaviour and that provides age appropriate ways of managing emotions without chucking a tantrum.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Norwood House Press for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
A boy and his pet dragon feel mad when asked to do daily tasks. Together they learn to manage their anger and find that completing their tasks is a good thing. Emphasises the importance of controlling the emotion of anger. Teacher resources include note to caregivers, word list, reading activities to strengthen phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
Random Illustrated Facts: A Collection of Curious, Weird, and Totally Not Boring Things to Know is a collection of illustrations by Mike Lowery and handwritten tidbits about the obscure, unusual and simply random. The book is divided into sections covering history, animals, food and drinks, science and everyday things.
After developing an obsession interest with children’s non-fiction books last year and borrowing all the new ones throughout the year regardless of topic some from the library, I already knew a lot of these random facts and had absorbed others through osmosis over the years. Apparently my brain clings to useless random snippets of information and in doing so pushes out the stuff I actually need to remember in the process.
This was a quick read. I enjoyed the quirkiness of the illustrations and think this would be a suitable gift book. I can also see these illustrations being used as a basis for an office desk calendar.
I found the writing which tends to slope upwards to the right fairly often distracting until I got used to it, the clutter of words on some pages hard to follow and the smudges on others a bit off-putting, but maybe I’m being overly picky.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Workman Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
A collection of illustrated trivia unlike any other. From glow-in-the-dark cats to Jupiter’s diamond showers to the link between dancing goats and the discovery of coffee, here are up to 100 obscure and fascinating facts brought to life in Mike Lowery’s quirky, hilarious style. Each illustrated fact is paired with a handwritten web of related tidbits, recreating an entertaining dive down a trivia rabbit hole.
Is a Worry Worrying You? is worrying me. I kid you not!
Suppose you had read a brilliant book by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz and you needed to write a review that shows just how good it is but you don’t know if your words can possibly explain your thoughts, when your thoughts about the book are more feelings than words.
Now that’s a worry!
But you can get rid of that worry by reading the book three times to yourself and then reading it to someone you know who worries a lot about a lot of things and ask them what they thought as well.
Because if you talk about a worry with someone else it’s easier to tell the worry to go away.
Suppose Marie Le Tourneau is an incredibly talented artist but you don’t know if you could ever be that talented or creative.
Now that’s a worry!
But you can get rid of that worry by admiring her talent and laughing along with the humour in her illustrations. You can also spend time searching out each picture for the worry monster you know will be lurking somewhere on every page.
You can remember that everyone has their own unique talents. Rather than spending time worrying about your weaknesses you can focus on your strengths and spend time doing what you’re passionate about.
Is a Worry Worrying You? may be intended for a young audience but adult worriers can also learn valuable tools while reading this book. After defining what a worry is, our authors take us on a guided tour of realistic worries children may have but told in a wild and wacky way. Like what to do if a gorilla borrows your skateboard but doesn’t return it to you when they say they will.
The reader is empowered with practical tools for managing and banishing worries along with some much needed perspective for worrywarts, reminding us that most of what we worry about doesn’t happen anyway.
I don’t know what I was so worried about. That wasn’t so hard after all. I guess I was right. This book is helpful for adults as well as children.
I think I need to reread this every time I have a worry to practice what I’ve learned until the worry monster doesn’t bring luggage each time he knocks on my door because he knows he won’t be invited to stay anymore.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tanglewood Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Adults think of childhood as a carefree time, but the truth is that children worry, and worry a lot, especially in our highly pressurized era. This book addresses children’s worries with humour and imagination, as hilarious scenarios teach kids the use of perspective and the art of creative problem-solving.
So, there’s an adorable dragon all dressed up for Halloween and holding a carved pumpkin on the cover. SOLD!
Es Halloween, querido dragón / It’s Halloween, Dear Dragon is a gorgeous little story for new readers, with all text in Spanish and English, with the exception of the activities at the end of the book which are only in English.
There’s word repetition and colour recognition, along with a Reading Reinforcement section at the end of the story to guide the adult in helping their new reader get the most out of the experience. Beginning with the boy and Dear Dragon raking up leaves, then taking the reader through a variety of Halloween preparation activities before attending a party and flying home on a broomstick, Margaret Hillert has written a simple yet lovely story that is appropriate for her audience.
With brightly coloured and engaging illustrations by Jack Pullan, our sweet little dragon is clearly the star of the show. The illustrations complement the text well and will make you want to add a dragon to your family as well, if you don’t already have one.
This is the first dual language early reader I’ve come across so I don’t have anything to compare it to but from what I can tell, this book delivers on its promises and has magical elements that will ignite your child’s imagination as well as improve their reading ability and comprehension.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Norwood House Press for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
An easy story, in English and Spanish, about a boy and his pet dragon that enjoy fall activities and celebrate a happy Halloween. Beginning-to-Read books foster independent reading and comprehension. Using high frequency words and repetition, readers gain confidence while enjoying stories about everyday life and adventures. Full-colour and updated illustrations included. Reading reinforcement activities and a word list in the back of the book. Activities focus on foundational, language and reading skills. Perfect for an early introduction to Spanish or for ESL.
It’s Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas! It’s my very first manga experience! What’s not to love?!
OK, so you know the story of The Nightmare Before Christmas, right? If you said “no” I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you and wait here patiently while you go watch the movie…
[Christmas carol elevator music plays in the background]
OK, so you know the story of The Nightmare Before Christmas, right? Great!!!
So you know that in Halloween Town, Jack the Pumpkin King is over it! After another successful Halloween Jack is disillusioned and wanders off, followed by his trusty ghost dog Zero. I love Zero! After finding a Christmas tree shaped door in a tree trunk Jack stumbles into Christmas Town where he discovers snow, colour and the wonders of Christmas. Jack decides he’s going to be Sandy Claws this year and gets the freaky folks of Halloween Town involved in the preparations. Then things kind of fall apart. Can Sally, who’s secretly in love with Jack, help to save the day? Will the kidnapped Santa Claus ever make it back to Christmas Town? Can Christmas be saved?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then obviously you haven’t been paying attention. I’ll wait here patiently while you go watch the movie…
[Christmas carol elevator music plays in the background]
Right, so now we all know the story, let me say that this manga book is absolutely brilliant! If this is what manga is all about then I’ve been seriously missing out. This story stays true to the magic of the original and the artwork still feels like you’re walking through Tim Burton’s mind. With the cover illustration by Natsuki Minami and manga by Jun Asuka, I’m sold!
Kids and adults alike will appreciate this book. It’s suitable for those who decorate their trees by November and still have them up in January and it’s also a great read for those like me whose December catchphrase is ‘Bah, humbug!’. Plus, there’s Halloween Town! Need I say any more??
Thank you so much to NetGalley, TokyoPop and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King, the ruler of Halloween Town and master of all things creepy and spooky. But he’s tired of his life in the shadows and longs for something new. When he accidentally stumbles upon Christmas Town, he decides this is the perfect chance to try his hand at a brand new holiday and is convinced he’ll have the world yelling “Scary Christmas”! With the young patchwork doll Sally trying to dissuade him and the evil Oogie Boogie waiting in the wings to take over Halloween Town in Jack’s absence, he’d better hurry if he wants to get his plan in place by December 25th!
Sparse in words but full of wonder, Magic Words is an Inuit creation story that has been passed down orally and then written as a poem, now translated by Edward Field and accompanied by Mike Blanc’s gorgeous illustrations. Aimed at children between 4 and 12 years old, children and their parents alike will enjoy this book.
Magic Words invites us to imagine a time when humans and animals shared one language, when humans could become animals and animals could become human. We’re shown the magic of words, the power of speaking something into being.
Just like Vanita Oelschlager’s forthcoming book Fish-Boy it was Mike Blanc’s illustrations that sparked my interest in this book. I’m no artist but there’s something about Mike’s style that makes me want to linger over each illustration and I don’t know if I can describe this accurately but it is as though there is both a simplicity and depth to his artistry. You can glance at a page and know it’s a beautiful image but as you look closer you discover more and more intricacies.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Vanita Books for the opportunity to read this book. Between Magic Words and Fish-Boy I’ve had a small taste of Inuit culture but I’m hungry for more and will be on the lookout for future publications by Vanita Books.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Magic Words: From the Ancient Oral Tradition of the Inuit is a modern translation (1965) of a very old Inuit creation story by nationally known poet Edward Field. As a poem it captures beautifully the intimate relationship this Arctic people have with their natural world.
Magic Words describes a world where humans and animals share bodies and languages, where the world of the imagination mixes easily with the physical. It began as a story that told how the Inuit people came to be and became a legend passed from generation to generation. In translation it grew from myth to poem. The text comes from expedition notes recorded by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen in 1921. Edward Field got a copy from the Harvard Library and translated it into English.
When her 300 pound hoarder mother tells this smart as a whip yet extraordinarily literal 14 year old daughter to get out, Bun does and leaves the remote place she has always resided (I refuse to call it a home or living). She finds her home in the city with a group of strangers, the names of almost all we never learn.
Bun’s father left when she was five, at which point her mother made her invisible. Telling everyone Bun had gone with her father, her mother withdrew her from school after she’d only attended Kindergarten and proceeded to focus solely on her hoard. Bun taught herself everything she knows from the various books and VHS tapes that made their way into the house with the towers of stuff her mother gathered. Yes, you read that right. I said VHS. We travel back to the 1980’s in this book.
So, with all of Bun’s book smarts, incredible talent for memorising entire documentaries (here’s to you, Jimmy Quinlan) and her lack of any form of contact with the world except possibly on Tuesdays when she’d walk half an hour to shower at the RV park, Bun is completely naive regarding social norms. She doesn’t lie, doesn’t tell jokes and she doesn’t do sarcasm. What comes out of her mouth is usually delightfully inappropriate and giggle worthy.
I’m bleepin’ certain that my heart grew larger while reading The Agony of Bun O’Keefe and I’m pretty sure Bun is going to inhabit that extra space for a long time to come. This story should be a tragedy, covering a range of themes including sexuality, abuse, neglect, abandonment, rejection, sexual assault, suicide, grief, discrimination and outright bigotry, yet it’s not. The reason it’s not? Bun O’Keefe and her family. Not the family she was born into. Nope. They suck.
I’m talking about her other family that all live in the same temporary accommodation – Busker Boy, Big Eyes (thanks for the lesson in fake swearing, Big Eyes), Chef and Cher who is sometimes Chris. [Oh, and Dragon Man lives in the attic in the temporary accommodation but he is most definitely not family and doesn’t deserve precious words wasted on him.]
This book follows the lives of a bunch of society’s supposed misfits who we’d all be better off knowing and we would be so blessed to be grafted into their family. Everyone in this family have histories that haunt them and as we learn more about them and their pasts, we learn to love them all. This group of loveable outcasts show compassion that they haven’t been given, understanding that they’ve been denied and a purity of love that I doubt they’ve often felt, if ever.
The writing style made me want to beg Heather Smith to give me writing lessons. There was a simplicity to the way this book read, like you’re listening in on a conversation, but told in such a gorgeous way. I almost feel as though Heather bewitched me because I can’t tell you exactly how she made me connect so deeply and so quickly to this many diverse characters but she did a brilliant job. This book brought echoes of Billie Letts’ writing style to mind, perhaps because of the host of quirky characters and the ability to put a knife through my heart yet give me hope at the same time.
This should be one of the most depressing stories you’ve ever read but it’s told with such grace and beauty that I wound up smiling at all of the funny little things that made their way out of Bun’s mouth. Beneath the surface you are sure to feel an ache for her and the life that she and her new family have endured, and sometimes that ache will flare into an open wound, but you will be OK because this family won’t let you wallow in your sadness for long. Yes, I did need Kleenex and yes, I did cry six times but I promise you that over half of those times they were ‘oh, that’s so beautiful’ tears.
The ending was so sweet I could almost taste it but that didn’t bother me in the slightest. After what these people have been through, they deserve every snippet of happiness that comes their way.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book. This book is now one of my all time favourites. Whatever Heather Smith writes, I plan to read, no questions asked.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Set in 1980’s Newfoundland, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe is the story of a 14-year-old girl who runs away to the city and is taken in by a street musician who lives with an eclectic cast of characters: a pot smoking dishwasher with culinary dreams; a drag queen with a tragic past; a Catholic school girl desperately trying to reinvent herself; and a man who Bun is told to avoid at all cost.
Schizanthus Nerd 