I have the goal of reading all of K. O’Neill’s works. It has been a little tricky as they have gone by at least Kate O’Neill and Kay O’Neill as well. But with the finishing of the third book in the Tea Dragon Society series, I might have made it. This is a big deal as (until a few years ago when posthumously her second book came out) Harper Lee might have been the only author with that honor.
I came to The Tea Dagon Society Book One a bit later than most, but at least I did. It was the first book I read by O’Neill and what started the trouble of “wanting more.” And more I did, except for books two and three of the series. It was not until the day I got the library email that said (you guessed it if you’ve been following my reviews), “Your book is here.” (Again, you guessed it) Me, “What book?” It was The Tea Dragon Tapestry Book Three. I owned books one and two in paper, book three is in a huge oversized picture book format. But this really isn’t for the very young child or who does picture books. The themes are more mature, good for ages 10 and up. They deal with family, friendships, loss of tradition, a bit of same sex relationships, and a bit more.
The Tea Dragon Society (Tea Dragon, #1) is not a four or a five but really a 4.5 as I needed it to have more. But the art is amazing. The introduction to the four main characters comes both slowly and quickly. There is not a lot of “traditional” action-action, but what we see is action packed. We learn about the traditions of blacksmithing, tea dragons, and friendship. We find not only a same-sex couple but an interspecies couple, the father-named character of one child is non-binary looking (later presents a bit more steroytypically male), and the ideas of finding your place, your home, your family all come into play. The art is both sweet and a smidgen sensual. Almost anime looking, the characters are, even with their horns, round and cozy. These are people you want to be friends with. The colors are perfectly suited to the theme.
In The Tea Dragon Festival #2 we take a new trip. I had expected more of Greta and her family and friends from Volume one, but we take a step back in time and follow the niece of Erik (a character in book one who is not in a wheeled chair, but still with his partner) and learn more about Tea Dragons and what family means. There is also a bit on what loyalty and honor mean, and we have more lovely illustrations. This time there is some fantasy adventure and not “violence” but some intense fighting occurs, and yes a little blood is seen.
While the illustrations of books one are probably my favorite, I think The Tea Dragon Tapestry (Tea Dragon, #3) is my favorite of the trilogy. We tie books one and two together and see how things might work out for book one characters now they have mixed with the characters of book two as adults. This time around we have a bit more depth to the issues the characters deal with, but still, we do not go dark. I think you might be able to switch books one and two and read out of numbered order (by getting chronological order), do not read book three before at least reading book one.
