Score: 92+/100 (9.2+ out of 10)
Tammy the Troll is another fun, exciting children's dance book by Once Upon a Dance. This particular book is an ambitious collaboration with author Dina McDermott. According to McDermott, Tammy the Troll is a story that she's developed and shared with dance students for thirty years! It is brought to life via the bright, colorful illustrations of Cristian Gheorghita, whose incredible art-style we recognized from Eka & the Elphants, arguably our favorite Once Upon a Dance book. It is also brought to life via the dance demonstrations of the beautiful, gorgeous, cute, skilled, and very talented Ballerina Konora, the mascot and icon of Once Upon a Dance. As in other books in the series, Konora appears throughout the book, demonstrating the dance moves or actions that correspond to that particular section. Konora is almost always one of our favorite parts of every Once Upon a Dance book, along with the cute animals. She has a charisma that's only matched by the likes of Mr. Rogers, Loonette from Big Comfy Couch, or Steve from Blues Clues. Konora is the perfect person to put in that role. We could actually imagine her having her own children's TV show alongside her mom and some puppets portraying the characters/animals. It would be a hit! Well, in this book, we don't quite have an animal character, we have a mystical creature: a troll! For anyone who grew up in the 80s to mid-90s, troll dolls were likely a familiar and welcomed sight (alongside Beanie Babies). Well, Tammy, the titular troll of the book, definitely takes inspiration from these dolls with her tall, wild, bright-purple hair, a diamond on her belly, and a contagious smile. In this interactive story, a group of children go out to meet Tammy at her tree home in the woods. It is implied, though not stated, that this is a special occasion for Tammy, perhaps her birthday (as the children bring a present with them). It is also possible that the children are just nice friends who want to give her a gift. The children go through many obstacles to reach Tammy, then to return home with her. They climb through trees, climb up mountains, roll down hills, and go over the river in a row boat. All the while, Ballerina Konora provides the audience with dance moves to accompany each part of this grand adventure. Also new to this book are some of the direct instructions for teachers and dance instructors to use, indicated by hand symbol. The little adventure that the children go on is quite engaging, especially with the dance moves. This book reminded us a lot of Going on a Bear Hunt, a popular children's book/song that was in circulation in preschools in the 2010s. Like this story, it involved children going on an adventure through the woods, over mountains, and across rivers to find someone (Tammy the troll or the Big Scary Bear). This is, undoubtedly, a lot less scary and dark than that story was. However, one thing that this book could've benefited in borrowing from Going on a Bear Hunt is repetition. In Tammy the Troll, it always seems like the story and characters are running away and ahead of you instead of running with you. The flow of the story goes from one thing to the next, and it can be a bit overwhelming .Movements and situations change after every page or every other page, so there are times when you may find yourself lost or falling behind. Every dance routine should have repetition—certain motions that are repeated almost like a bridge or a chorus to the rest of the song/routine. This book may have benefited by having some movements that were repeated to add continuity and familiarity to it. It's the “aha” moment that every dancer looks for—the sequence of motions that they can immediately fall back on when they get lost. Another thing we noticed is that this book missed out in giving the human characters a bit more character. For example, in Eka and the Elephants, Eka was a distinct person and character. The same was true for Andi in Andi's Valentine Tree and Sora in Sora Searches for a Song. In this book, all the human characters seem to blend and blur together. This is a little unfortunate because this series of books has become known for its deep, emotionally-complex characters. However, this all might have something to do with the fact that this book is a lot less wordy, and so includes a lot less exposition and character development than other books. That leads us to our next key point. This book does shows massive improvement in one key area: being more concise. We have noticed that a lot of Once Upon a Dance book tended to be on the wordy side (in terms of children's books). This book was a lot more concise and brief in its presentation of information. Instead of being presented with huge blocks of texts to accompany the dance routines and story, we are simply supplied with maybe 8-12 words at a time. If Once Upon a Time could find a balance between this brevity and the character depth that the wordiness in previous books allowed, we could be looking at near-perfect children's books! One last thing to note, this book probably makes the most use of apparatuses than any of the other Once Upon a Dance books. It is recommended that the readers use two scarves and a backpack to help them on their adventure. We've found that apparatuses (and instruments) can really help to make an experience like this more engaging and fun for children. Check this out on Amazon!
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Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)
The Space Traveller's Lover is a roller-coaster ride of a sci-fi/romance novel by Omara Williams. The book follows a hybrid alien-human being named Erin/Shaillah who lived much of her life as a sort of sleeper agent living among the humans on Earth. When Shaillah's people, the aliens known as the Rom-Ghenshar, touch bases with her to awaken her latent self, Shaillah finds herself in a very tough spot. On one hand, she loves the Earth and its people, especially her best friend and love interest, Sam Sheppard. On the other hand, she also wants to prove her loyalty and gain a sense of belonging with her original alien tribe as well as becoming enamored with the handsome navigator of the Grand Fleet, Rothwen. Ultimately, Erin/Shaillah finds herself stuck between two opposing sides and between two men she loves in different ways. The Space Traveller's Lover really is a roller-coaster ride, for better or for worse. What do we mean by that? Well, it started off on a pretty low note. The first 50 to 60 pages were incredibly slow and quite boring, to be honest. We also didn't buy into the romance angles until quite late in the book. However, this book really picked up and actually became quite interesting and even cool. It's actually very cool that these aliens whom we expected to be benevolent actually had ulterior motives—and clever ones at that. Chief among the aliens is Kuzhma-Or, the leader of the “invincible” Grand Fleet who is known to be a conqueror of many worlds. Kuzhma-Or is effectively the main villain of the novel, however, he doesn't come across as pure evil or tyrannical—just as someone who is following what he perceives to be the natural order of things. What's interesting is that Shaillah (and the reader) get a very sympathetic understanding of the Rom-Ghenshar and Kuzhma-Or. Shaillah actually spends quite a bit of time getting to know them, and actually enjoys her time with them. It's not that much different from when John Sully befriends the Na'vi in Avatar and turns on the humans. The Rom-Ghenshar in this scenario are more like the humans in Avatar, but you get the point. They all seem to have a good reason and motivations to do what they're doing. The one thing that's a bit strange is how robotic and unnatural the protagonist, Shaillah, begins to act about midway through this book. It's almost like she's been reprogrammed or brainwashed, and she kinda has been. The thing is, it's so sudden, abrupt, and seems unnatural. It also takes away from whatever emotional connection we initially had for her, though we do get some of that back eventually. The technology and space travel in this book really impressed us. The most impressive thing about the technology in this book was how the aliens figured out how to transverse space-time in an instant, even in the absence of wormholes (which they scoff and laugh at as if it's an archaic concept). Also, this book actually makes sense of the existence of structures like Stone Hedge and the pyramids of Egypt since it is explained that the Rom-Ghenshar were on Earth basically helping the humans to build themselves a colony. Conflict ensued between the two, and tragically, it seems like the Rom-Ghenshar are out to get retribution on a totally separate generation of humans than the ones who turned on them centuries ago. Oh, yeah, by the way... the Rom-Ghenshar and Shaillah have superpowers like telepathy and weather manipulation, which is actually really cool! Check it out on Amazon! Score: 96/100 (9.6 out of 10)
Bentley's Fantabulous Idea is an enormously ambitious and impressive children's book by Miki Taylor. It is BRILLIANTLY illustrated by Eunhye Shin in a truly standout effort for an illustrator. In fact, Shin's spectacular, complex, and extremely time-consuming illustrations are the primary reason that this book scores so astronomically high. The effort and time that must've gone into crafting each and every page is unfathomable! We don't say these things lightly. Almost every single page has at least a half-dozen well-illustrated characters, and each of these is performing a unique action. In other words, this isn't a copy-and-paste job. This isn't AI-generated or colored using some shell-shaded, time-saving trick. No. Everything in this book is hand-drawn and hand-colored. You can literally see the lines and the strokes of the pencil. It is an extremely, highly-detailed, methodical artistic effort! With that said, there are times when you could argue that there's a bit too much going on—an extra-sensory-overload. However, we actually didn't find this to be a big deal. We could still see what was going on and could still read the text. That was the main thing. This book follows Betty, a precocious and adventurous little girl who has adopted a photography and scrapbooking hobby. She starts small, taking pictures of herself, her surrounding, and her brilliant and fluffy dog, Bentley. Bentley comes up with the fabulous idea of expanding the scope of Betty's project, encouraging her to take pictures of ALL of their friends while they show off their activities, interests, and personalities. They do this with their permission, of course, and their friends proudly and graciously follow along. What's incredible about all of this is that all of the anthropomorphic animal characters are given a chance to shine in their own individual and unique ways, even when they're competing for page-space with other characters. This book features the ones and only cute centipede we've ever seen: Coco Centipede. Coco wears boots on all of her dozen or so legs! She is colorful and, like we said, cute. This book in general oozes with cuteness and positivity. Even the snake in this book is adorable! Then you have the gator character who looks like he works out, the meerkat who loves to make music, the peacock who loves to pose to some tunes, the kangaroo who loves the pool, and Mr. Bee—arguably the tritagonist of the book—who encourages both Betty and Bentley. This book has so much going for it, and we were incredibly impressed. Check it out on Amazon! Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)
Gothic Revival by Michael Mullin is a very special novel. It's a book that spoke to us. It seemed tailor made for people like us: creators, writers, authors, filmmakers, and dreamers. The characters in this book are SO relatable for people like us, people who love to write, publish, and make stuff. People who dream of turning their books into a movie, a video game, or a toy line. People who keep a notepad/composition book on their bed stand in case they get an idea for a plot twist or character at night. That's the kind of reader that this book is written for. We were all in and all on board! This book follows a collection of classmates/friends from the same graduate school's creative writing program, reuniting after years apart and each pursuing their own creative endeavors and careers. They are summoned together by one of their more successful and strange classmates, Eric Asher, a critically-acclaimed screenwriter and film director who has recently become an executive producer. Eric's seemingly innocuous invite with the header “Don't ignore opportunity” turns out to be a cryptic, inside-reference for his former classmates, leading them to compete in a ghost writing contest similar to the one that Lord Byron held in Geneva, all in the confines of a building that is apparently haunted. Among the characters is Chris, a man who Eric cruelly pranked at the end of schooling with a mock arrest that led to him suffering an anxiety attack. This highlights Eric's cruel and unscrupulous nature despite his blinding charisma, wealth, and success. Joining Chris is Anne, his wife. There's also Fiona, one of the more interesting characters, who is a spiritual medium able to hear the voices of ghosts. It is stated that she has some degree of clairvoyance. She is often referred to by the nickname “Woodstock” because of the bird character from Peanuts appearing on many of the things she owned in college. Finally, there's Lauren, arguably the main protagonist. Lauren is a teacher who seems to be the one most suspicious of Eric's motives and ultimate intentions. She also has the rare but useful ability to dislocate her own thumb. Despite this colorful cast of characters, it ultimately boils down to Lauren being able to stop the obviously-evil Eric. What's a bit strange about this is that the author had really given us the impression that they were trying to build an ensemble cast of characters: a cast in which each of the characters played an equally important role. Ultimately, this was Lauren's story to finish, which seemed both fitting and bizarre as she was arguably the flattest character (next to Anne) with the least to offer. In fact, Lauren's apprehension and ability to dislocate her thumb seemed like the only things that helped her to stand out. It's not unheard of for the most unremarkable in a group of characters to be given the most remarkable role, that of the final girl. You could make the argument that her rather close, intimate relationship with Eric in grad school helped build to her being the main protagonist as she had the most personal relationship with the antagonist. However, shouldn't Chris have a personal vendetta against him too? Unfortunately, when this becomes the Lauren Show, the other characters practically seem to fall of the map and become irrelevant, inanimate objects. They might as well not even be involved, sadly. It's unfortunate because Chris had a personal score to settle with Eric, and Fiona had the greatest promise of the characters given her ability. All in all, though, this is a book with some very relatable characters and moments. For example, there's are instances in which the authors/artists find out if they're finalists for an award or not. The ones who are experience relief and joy, the others experience the crushing feelings of disappointment and failure. This contest was founded following such an event. Being an author and a creator is frustrating. It's hard to market yourself. It's hard to get your name/brand out there. It's hard to stay motivated and to not stop believing. The author gets it. And for that, we really enjoyed this book. Check it out on Amazon! Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)
Well, we were not quite expecting this! It Eats What Feeds It is a chilling and infinitely intriguing graphic/horror novel written by Max Hoven and Aaron Crow. It is wonderfully illustrated (for its purposes) by Gabriel Iumazark. A down-on-his-luck ne'er-do-well named Kenny takes up an opportune job as the handyman of a mysterious haunted mansion owned by a gorgeous blonde woman named Francois. This book is shrouded in mystery from the get go as the reader is automatically bewildered by such things as why such a rich and fabulous woman lives in a raggedy old mansion by herself and what that mysterious, monstrous figure in the house might be. Indeed, Kenny is alarmed by sight, sounds, and smells of a large monstrosity living somewhere in the house. He notices blood in places. He sees the silhouette of what appears to be a humongous, multi-armed figure. Francois becomes protective of a door leading up to the attic where the creature presumably lives. The audience is at the edge of its seats constantly! We're constantly wondering what will happen next! Beside being a mystery, horror, and graphic novel, this book also has erotic vibes or subtext. Although full-nudity sex is never shown, it is implied. There's so much sexual tension in the air! And it's not necessarily a bad thing. Francois looks GREAT! She might be an early candidate for our “Hottest Character” award. She kinda reminds us of Ms. Bellum, the mayor's assistant from Powerpuff Girls. They even dress the same (in a short red dress). Francois allows her black & white-laced lingerie hang out and her skirt to ride up, constantly putting out a tantalizing, tempting sexual aura. You can really tell why Kenny sticks around even though he knows something creepy is going on. The benefits are great after all. Outside of the main characters (Kenny, Francois, and Gregg), the other characters are not as well illustrated, although they really didn't have to be. You don't expect background characters to look or be as detailed as the main characters, that could even be considered distracting. There's also a mystery that surrounds a town bar dweller named Gregg, someone who knows a lot more than he puts out. Ultimately, the reveals and the backstory of Francois, Gregg, and whatever the monstrous creature might be are all quite satisfying. Check it out! Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)
GIANT FROGS! GIANT CENTIPEDES! GREEN YETI MEN! DINOSAURS! The Oasis King by Mark David Pullen is a straight-up Kaiju novel! We were not expecting that, but were pleasantly surprised. What begins as a swamp lands/backwoods story featuring a grandma (“Grams”) acting as a single guardian to several adventurous cousins turns into a thrilling monster novel. The presentation of this book almost feels like one of those Survivor-esque reality shows, namely Alaskan Bush People. There's a sense that Grams, Dylan, Tripp, Jackson, Rumble, and later Martin have been living off the grid for sometime. If you're into those off the grid stories, this is for you. So, what is this book about? Well, despite it's wild, fantastical concept, it's actually quite digestible and understandable. In this book, a group of boys, all cousins, discover a mysterious place called the Valley. the Valley is full of exotic, strange, big, and powerful creatures, some of which seem to be from the Earth's prehistoric past. This book reminded us a lot of Terra Nova or Primeval. The cousins, led by the eldest, Dylan (“Dyl”), encounter a mysterious, scruffy man named Martin who has been living in the Valley for some time. Martin reveals to the boys that the Valley, also called the Oasis, is a kind of pocket universe wrapped away and separated from the rest of the Earth. Martin reveals that the Oasis is actually a remnant of the Garden of Eden where animals that would've gone extinct due to Noah's Flood are able to continue to exist. This is actually an incredible and interesting premise! The Valley is inhabited by several of the ominous figures in the novel including the terrifying Oasis King—a giant ogre-like creature with large tusks who roams and “rules” the land. There's also the mysterious and dangerous Green Man who serves as one of the direct antagonists of the novel, hunting Martin and the boys relentlessly. Now, let's talk about what we really wanted to talk about: Martin. Martin is one of the coolest, most awesome characters we've read about this season. Martin, we quickly learn, is actually Dylan's estranged father and Gram's long lost son. Beside that, though, he's a bad@$$ who has lived alone in the Valley and survived using his own wits (and some luck). Martin knows that Valley as well as anyone. It's from him that we become familiar with it and its strange inhabitants. Martin also reveals more about Grams and Dylan's mother, often noting the similarities between Dylan and his mother. This is strangely touching and sentimental at times. He reminded us of Stephen Lang's character from Terra Nova or John Locke from Lost. It is a little unfortunate that he loses a lot of his mystery and coolness almost as soon as we meet him as he reveals how much peril and danger he has been in. It would've been cooler to have him fight and take out some monsters instead of being nearly killed by some of them, but it's ok. Like with Boba Fett, we chose to create our own head canon about him. Another question that lingers throughout the book is: is Martin really a GOOD GUY? Martin helps the boys, but it always seems like he's hiding something—some secret. We already know that he didn't exactly leave Grams on good terms based on some of the hints he drops. Could he be responsible for some of the bad things that have happened to the boys? Could he be responsible for them living like Bush people? This book was a lot of fun to read. However, it did seem to stop and end almost as soon as it started. Perhaps the author is aiming for a series. Check it out on Amazon! Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)
The Gnatural by Mark & Ryan Bryson is a WINNER along with its inspiring lead characters, Roy (a gnat) and Bryce Hopper (a grasshopper). This is a positive, encouraging, and motivational children's book about having dreams and following them despite the numerous obstacles that will inevitably come your way. Furthermore, it's also colorfully illustrated by iNDOS Studio, something we also appreciated. So, let's get into it! As mentioned before, the book follows two childhood friends and baseball (“bugsball”) fanatics: Roy and Bryce. Roy is clearly the central protagonist of the story as it's mostly his ups and downs that we follow. One of Roy's defining physical characteristics is his small size, mostly owed to being a gnat. However, his defining personal characteristic is his passion. His passion, moreso even than his talent for pitching, really stands out. He LOVES the sport of bugsball. He thinks about it during class. He plays it during recess. He collects sports memorabilia including collector's cards and posters, covering his walls and decorating his home with them. This is actually something that almost every child can relate to, even those who aren't particularly interested in sports. Every kid will eventually find something in their life that they're “into.” That could be a sport, or it could be something like painting, jazz music, RPG video games, cartoons, or chess. Every kid (and most adults) will develop some sort of passion and/or adopt a hobby that keeps them interested and excited about life in one way or another. Although these things may not be math, languages, or sciences, they're still important to one's growth, development, and overall outlook. Being happy and being able to express oneself through one's passion is extremely overrated, especially with young people in schools following rigorous curriculums. Roy is the embodiment of all of this, someone who has a dream and a vision early in life and does everything he can to achieve it later in life. And, like real life, not everything goes to plan. The road to glory is bumpy and winding, often unpaved. In one of the most shocking and tragic moments of the book, Roy is badly injured by a bird just as he's on the verge of making the big leagues. He spends months lying in a hospital bed watching others (including Bryce) go pro and live their dreams. However, this only elevates Roy's character in our minds. See, instead of being jealous and envious of Bryce (as some would be in that situation), Roy is estatic to see his friend and training partner be great. That, more than anything else, really made Bryce come across as a good person to us—someone we could get behind. And it goes both ways: Bryce also believed in, encouraged, and stood up for Roy when they were growing up in the minor leagues. Roy is a perfect friend and training partner: the kind of person who makes us better and happier. Bryce and Roy form an awesome dynamic due with Roy as the all-star pitcher and Bryce as the all-star slugger. They're practically as close as brothers throughout most of this book. Now, there are times when the writing is a bit overly-wordy. There are times when the writing is windy and weavy. Case in point: the author constantly makes thinly veiled inside jokes and references to famous MLB players and baseball in general. Even if you get these puns and references (as an adult), you've gotta think that very few children will get them. Yes, there are some baseball fanatics like Roy who will understand, but the majority of readers are not going to be fanatics. The majority of readers are going to be young kids who just want to read a good story with good characters, and thankfully this book delivers in both regards. However, the constant puns and references do create some complications, turning this otherwise simple book into a little bit of a maze. If you find your read-aloud sessions getting bogged down by these, you could, of course, just skip those parts and hope that the kids (depending on their reading level) won't notice. The other thing that bothered us just a teensy little bit was that there are a few huge gaps between major events in the book. For example, one moment Roy and Bryce are just kids playing in their back yard, the next moment they're trying out for the major leagues. One moment Roy is in a hospital bed, the next moment he's pitching in the World Series. It's a little bit jarring, but we get it: you don't want to test the patience and attention spans of kids. You also don't want to pay a fortune for more pages of illustrations just to pad out the story. That, along with the abrupt ending, still left us wondering and feeling like something was missing. Anyway, this book clearly comes from a place of heart and passion, and it shows. These authors LOVE baseball. We also loved the positivity and inspiring nature of this book. Check it out on Amazon! Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)
If the past several contests have taught us anything, it's not to judge a book simply by its cover or its illustrations. You need to look at the total picture. So, yes, the illustrations in this book may be sub-optimal or simplistic, but they're still bright, colorful, positive, and accommodate the tone and message of the book. An ABC Bible Adventure is a solid Christian children's book. It's a great way to introduce your children (or even new English speakers) to the concepts in The Bible, discussing some of the key figures like God, Jesus, Daniel, Noah, and Moses. It is a respectful and fundamentally/theologically-sound book. Protestants and Catholics alike can find common ground, finding little to no fault in it. There is a surprising amount of emphasis on obeying and listening to parents, but it is what it is. That's a message that parents obviously want their kids to take away. However, there are times when it seems over-the-top. Anyway, this book is very well organized, as you might expect from an ABCs book. The choice of words used for these ABCs are actually quite good. We have no complaints. Sure, words like “zeal” might be big for children, but what else are you going to put there? Now, there are times when the illustration style seems inconsistent. There are times when human characters have detailed facial features and other times when they're essentially a step up from stick figures. This minor issue is apparent on pages like the letter K page in which some figures have fully detailed eyes while others just have dots. There are times, like on page 22, when characters are proportional; yet there are times, like on page 21, when they're pretty much caricatures. Overall, this book has a very Infographics or Thought Bubble-like appearance. It delivers the powerful and significant message of Christianity including God's love and hopes for mankind (like kindness). Check this out on Amazon! Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)
What is the Shape of My Egg? by Lisa Weckbacher is an excellent children's book that teaches kids the difference between different round shapes, specifically circles and ovals. The book accomplishes this in a fun, humorous, interesting, and entertaining way by presenting this topic from the perspective of several hen sisters living on the same farm: Silkie, Dreeka, Henrietta, and Dottie. This book centers around Silkie, one of the smaller and less learned hens, as she proudly discovers and announces that she has laid her first egg. She erroneously claims that her egg is a perfect circle, something that the other hens are quick to correct and admonish her about, albeit in a friendly and helpful way. Dottie is the first to let Silkie know that despite her egg being “perfect” in some ways, it's actually not a circle at all. The reason, as Dottie and Henrietta explain, is that Silkie's egg has longer (elongated) sides and has points. Circles, they explain, are even and equally round on all sides. Silkie is still a little confused and wants to find other examples of circles and ovals. And so begins the fun of the book! Children can join Silkie and the other chickens in finding other circle and oval-shaped objects around the farm. For example, it is pointed out that ceiling fan and night light are circular while the watermelon is oval-shaped. We do wish that the illustrator did a little more to put some “easter eggs” (hidden circles and ovals) in the backgrounds of these pictures, but it's fine for what it is. Silkie, Dreeka, Henrietta, and Dottie are lovable and magnetic characters. Silkie apparently gets her name because she's from a type of chicken (silkies) who are smaller. Her innocence and naivety are welcoming traits. Dottie comes across as one of the older and more experienced chickens, using her wisdom to help Silkie to come to a better understanding of how things work. We very much enjoyed this book, especially having had pet chickens in the past. The illustrations are surprisingly sufficient, reflecting the art style of something like Goodnight Moon or The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The chicken characters are cute and distinct. Yes, backgrounds are reused a few times, but it's fine. Having just reviewed another children's book that emphasized geometry, we were especially impressed by this one. Check it out on Amazon! Score: 95+/100 (9.5+ out of 10)
Wren & the Worry-Vanishing Magic is by far one of the best children's books to ever come through our contest! It sits up there with the likes of Witches, Bats, and Mystical Cats by Julie Chapman, Do You Know the One? by Michelle Bentley, and The Only Blue Crow by Tuula Pere. What makes this book so great? Well, first of all, the art/illustrations are perfect for the purpose they're meant to serve. They have a very anime-esque, cartoonish appearance that's cute, colorful, and appealing. The characters almost look like they're out of an early Studio Ghibli production like Ponyo or Kiki's Delivery Service (which might have served as a bit of an inspiration for Wren's design). In short, it looks great! Wren's design is perfect for the purposes of this book! She's appealing, cute, and colorful, but not overwhelmingly so. You can tell that she's the center of this book's attention, but she's not the only person/thing on the screen that commands your attention. Instead, she is usually used like a cursor on your computer to point things out to you (the reader) or to another character. She's a great person, using the things and tricks that she's learned and gained from her experiences in order to help others. We really fell in love with Wren as a character! She is one of our favorites so far this season for “Best Character!” Furthermore, you can tell that actual work and effort went into crafting this. Everything looks hand-drawn and hand-colored. The illustrator didn't just copy and paste some graphics, use AI, or do some cell-shading tricks. No, everything here looks genuine and legit. Secondly, the purpose of this book is commendable and very practical. The book seeks to tackle individual anxieties and problems related to school life such as separation anxiety, performance anxiety, ADHD, perfectionism, and more! There are practical and useful solutions for all of these, many of which deal with reframing or redirecting our thinking toward positivity and/or acceptance. There are also some interesting tricks like adopting a stone or plushy to help us to cope with stress. Something else we really loved was the diversity of all of the students portrayed. Not only are the students ethnically and racially diverse, but they all have a diverse range of issues and personality traits. Some are living with issues unrelated to their anxieties. For example, Ashby is wheelchair bound, although it never comes up as her defining issue. Ashby fits right in with everyone else, and we love that. As an aside, we wouldn't mind a Jasper's Magic Academy novel starring Wren and her classmates on some Harry Potter-esque adventures! Check this out on Amazon! |
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