The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar
OK, so I am a huge Louis Sachar fan from Wayside School days, but my favorite book of his as a kid was Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes. It was the funniest book I’d ever read (though I have a feeling one of the reasons I reread it as much as I did was because I could picture my middle school crush so clearly as the lead, he was the class clown type). I was too old for Holes when it came out, but I read […]
The Princess Away Beyond the Mountains by Valeria Angela Pisi and Francesc Rovira
April's Journey by Annamaria Piccione, Luis Amavisca and Francesc Rovira
I don’t know which came first for me to read, The Princess Away Beyond the Mountains by Valeria Angela Pisi and illustrated by Francesc Rovira (available) or April’s Journey by Annamaria Piccione, Luis Amavisca, and Francesc Rovira (available). Whichever way it was (both read via online readers) April’s Journey made me think that it felt familiar. But I do not think I had read either before. It turned out that both were done by Francesc Rovira as the illustrator, and there was the familarity, with images […]
My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun and Edward Gauvin
When I get on a browsing spree, I find myself down so many rabbit holes, I twist my brain. This means, I will find something I like the looks and/or sound of and find a copy. But when I do finally get the copy, I forget why it drew me in. So it is a wonderful surprise. This happened with My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun and Edward Gauvin (author/illustrator and translator respectively). In the end, the reason I wanted to […]
Hide and Seek by Naono Yoshiko and Ryan Holmberg
Hide and Seek by Naono Yoshiko and Ryan Holmberg (translator) is not a nice book. But an amazing read. I would have given it a 5 but a few pieces of “scare” and culture might have been lost in translation so I was not sure why the situation was supposed to be “that scary” or the exact “thing” that was going on. Also, the images were a bit “blended together” for my tastes. I do like the black and white look as it keeps […]
Festival of Shadows: A Japanese Ghost Story by Atelier Sentô, Cécile Brun and Oliver Pichard
When I read Festival of Shadows: A Japanese Ghost Story by Atelier Sentô, Cécile Brun and Oliver Pichard, I had two feelings about it. The first was that it was horrible. The second was that it was amazing. These conflicting feelings are both real. This book is a book that I felt as much as I read. And all the feels I was having, got mixed and mashed together and made me not have a happy tummy. Yet, I can’t get over how good things […]
Luminous: Living Things That Light Up the Night by Julia Kuo
My new goal is to find as many books I can find that are written and illustrated by Julia Kuo. I have read only a few, but know that I won’t be disappointed when I find others. The one that I recently found and has sealed the deal for knowing I will enjoy their books, was Luminous: Living Things That Light Up the Night by them. And all I can really say is that this is just amazingly and beautifully done. Overall, it starts out […]
