D C rated The Hidden Witch: 5 stars
The Hidden Witch by Molly Knox Ostertag (The Witch Boy, #2)
Aster's friend from the non-magical part of town, Charlie, is having problems of her own -- a curse has tried …
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Aster's friend from the non-magical part of town, Charlie, is having problems of her own -- a curse has tried …
Aster always looks forward to the Midwinter Festival, a reunion of the entire Vanissen family that includes competitions in witchery …
It's only been a few months since Gregor and Boots returned from the Underland, leaving their mother behind to heal …
When AJ and Nia are paired up for a group project on Transylvania, it may be AJ s chance to …
Mischievous woodland fairy Nix is up to no good. His beloved fairy queen has gone away, leaving him with a …
One might mistake The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge for a ponderous read at first glance, but it was the actually most effortless read I've had in a long time. A not insubstantial portion of the hefty book is composed of detailed ink illustrations, but the clever text is the real source of its readability. With its adult historian main characters it's not interested in fitting any narrow tween adventure mold or talking down to the reader, but I hope precocious young readers will embrace its bold, unusual style and enjoy it as much as I did.
Full review on my blog, Never Too Old Reviews:
https://ntoreviews.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-assassination-of-brangwain-spruge-m.html
Based loosely around Baba Yaga folklore, The House With Chicken Legs unfolds as an unhurried coming of age story that, using its fantastical premise, explores growing children's need to find their own path. It was definitely a change of pace from the explosive adventures I usually pick up at my library, but I appreciated its contemplative style, sweeping depictions of landscapes and locales, and heartwarming message. Closing this book felt (very appropriately) like waving goodbye to a family that shared stories with you over a good dinner.
Read my full review on my blog, Never Too Old Reviews:
https://ntoreviews.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-house-with-chicken-legs-sophie.html
This book was a decent end to a decent series, in my opinion. There were some big payoffs matched by some missed opportunities, and while the main plot was strong enough, it could have done without filling every moment of silence with Call angsting about his love life. Definitely no Harry Potter, but I wouldn't have finished the series if it wasn't worth the while.
This was a weird read. I usually don't like to pick up graphic adaptations of existing novels (I prefer to read the originals) but I didn't check this one and only realized it was an adaptation when I got home. I was still excited to read it, but even though the art was eye-catching and the story had a good concept, when I finished I felt like I had missed something. The most obvious contradiction was that the main characters looked and sounded nothing like 10 to 12 year-olds, but I know it's hard to nail down kid characters in all kinds of art. I think it might have made a little more sense if they went up to 16 or so. Still, it took checking out the reviews on the original novel to understand what was really weird. All the overly preachy parts of the book, condemning charity and …
This was a weird read. I usually don't like to pick up graphic adaptations of existing novels (I prefer to read the originals) but I didn't check this one and only realized it was an adaptation when I got home. I was still excited to read it, but even though the art was eye-catching and the story had a good concept, when I finished I felt like I had missed something. The most obvious contradiction was that the main characters looked and sounded nothing like 10 to 12 year-olds, but I know it's hard to nail down kid characters in all kinds of art. I think it might have made a little more sense if they went up to 16 or so. Still, it took checking out the reviews on the original novel to understand what was really weird. All the overly preachy parts of the book, condemning charity and praising hard work and self-sufficiency, are apparently libertarian views, and the author was a staunch libertarian who based the characters in the book on his children, creating a sort of model for them to aspire to. I almost gave this a three star review, but that was mostly because the art is cool and and I like the high-level concept of the story. The problem is that plot didn't feel like it was exploring what would really happen if children were left without adults; it felt like Nelson was projecting his ideal society onto a "blank slate" society he contrived by killing all the adults. He didn't need his characters to be like real children, who still need a lot of time and support before they can do anything like become doctors or farmers or soldiers. He needed them to be like children in one way: they have no way of supporting the way of life that is possible with adults. Because their lifestyle was so disrupted, he could then supplant it with a strange, callous sort of meritocracy. He also manipulated other children into the roles of gang aggressors to contrast them with his upstanding workers, but the truth is that real children don't form violent gangs when their parents die en masse. And in the end there was no point in caring about any of the people in the novel because what really wins the day is a lecture on libertarianism. Not grit or wisdom or character development, just a high-concept moral and economic philosophy which leaves everyone in the story looking like a selfish jerk or a lowlife thief. The more I think about it, the more it disappoints me. I really wanted to like a graphic novel called The Girl Who Owned a City.