#novel johanna

[wildflowers-of-trolberg]

In your Johanna abuse post, is there a reason why Johanna abuses Hilda at all? (I use the term abuse here loosely because I haven’t read the tie in novels yet-)

Not really - the novels mostly treat Novel Johanna's actions as normal in a way that makes me think the author (Stephen Davies) thinks that they are. There is one line that imples Novel Johanna's own parents were strict, but it's not treated with any kind of weight; it feels like the author just chose to wrote her as his idea of a parent, and that idea ended up deeply flawed.

If you'll allow me to be a little indulgent, this is kinda a common problem in the genre, I think. Hilda is fantasy, but the tie-in novels are still largely about her life as a kid and her struggles with school, moving, her mum etc, through the POV of a kid - so they share a lot of DNA with the Beverly Cleary-school of naturalistic kid lit - think Ramona, Judy Moody, Phoebe G. Green, and so on (I'd put Horrid Henry in here too, to an extent; it also suffers from the Tie-in Novels' issues) - series like these generally try and put you in the shoes of a kid dealing with normal kid things, so parents and teachers are often the antagonists.

In a good story like this, the adult characters should act in ways which feel unfair to the kid protagonist, but which they either ultimately have good reasons for (or, if the parents are actually being unfair, it's them making an understandable mistake and is acknowledged. It's harder to do but also very important. Bluey and the first season of Hilda are very good examples of both styles done right) - a parent who wants to move house isn't a bad person if the kid doesn't want to move; enforcing a bedtime doesn't make a mum a villain; the point is to say it's okay to be upset by things, and that sometimes grown-ups aren't perfect, but that sometimes things you don't like need to happen and that's okay too.

The problem is it's very easy to tip into the parent/teacher/authority figure actually being unfair, when they're not aiming for that. What you end up with is a storyline that treats the parents actions as "this seems unfair, but if you understand their side it's not" while the actual text has the parents not listening or being too harsh. They make the kid character's feelings too justified, basically. Even Hilda the show fumbled this, during Season 2; the tie-in novels just fumble it a lot harder.

This happening in media is not unique to kid lit, far from it; TVTropes wouldn't have "Unintentionally Unsympathetic" and "Designated Hero" as very common tropes if it was. But it's easy to do in kid lit because writing someone who seems like a villain but isn't is harder than just writing an outright villain, IMO.

[furashuban]

They mean everything to me your honour 💙🧡🥺

I'm still SUPER happy we got to have a somft mother-daughter moment of these two together in the new book <33

[petaltexturedskies]

Johanna Spyri, Heidi

[gaelmeee]

Sibling rivalry

[hkthatgffan]

Hilda and Twig: Hide from the Rain is amazing. It's different from the other graphic novels but in a charming/fun way. It still has everything that made Hilda so incredible in it. Having a Twig centric story with him talking was great.

It's a solid 9.5/10. Honestly, the only bad part was that it wasn't longer, lol. Peak Hilda as always!

[morganali-art]

Estimeric Week 2024 - Day 7 Free Day

I forget exactly what possessed me to do this, but I had a lot of fun putting it together 😅

Unscrunkled cover versions under the read more :3

[johannamation]

OH MY GHOST!

THE GHOSTKEEPER IS OUT TODAY!!

Happy pub day to my cozy spooky graphic novel, THE GHOSTKEEPER! 👻 🎉

Order here!!

[tastaturean]

You can kiss a hundred boys in bars Shoot another shot, try to stop the feeling You can say it's just the way you are Make a new excuse, another stupid reason Good luck, babe (well, good luck) Well, good luck, babe (well, good luck) You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling Chappell Roan, Good Luck Babe

Cover of Disarmed, the second Fence novel by Sarah Rees Brennan based on the Fence comics by C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad

[smashpages]

Out this week: The Ghostkeeper (Penguin Young Readers, $17.99): 

Johanna Taylor writes and draws this story of a man who can see ghosts in a world where the key to Death’s Door is stolen, trapping all the ghosts in the land of the living

See what else is coming to a comic shop near you this week.

[fated-mates]

Book deal!

We talked about Johanna Lindsey's UNTIL FOREVER in both Men in Fur and Sentient Objects.

It's down to $2 (from $9) right now.

[may-or-whatever]

okay so I just finished watching Hilda's 3rd season and then I remembered something from the graphic novels and I HAD to check this...

(spoilers under the cut)

IT WAS FORESHADOWED!

I mean Johanna declines it because the hill "gives her the creeps" which is somehow logical due to her past trauma with the fairy mount in Tofoten, even though she doesn't actually remember everything

(just like she somehow remembers the forest and the lake in episode 6).

[blightworn]

ooc. buzzes my head off i think hezenkoss is my fave non-companion character and now i get to think about her constantly with claude. life is great actually.

[mermaidsirennikita]

almost finished reading (technically rereading) Johanna Lindsey's Angel, and a little over halfway through the book, our heroine, Cassie (world class meddler brat, I do enjoy her) is forced to marry Angel (hired gun, quiet and often confused, actually very sweet and did not force this marriage himself lmao) and the plan is immediately like "well, we are going to get this annulled" but then Angel goes "unfortunately for that plan, I am terminally horny" and fucks her

... which leads to what is, I must say, a VERY funny repetitive trend in which MULTIPLE people including her mOM are like "Cassie, we need to get you a divorce" and Cassie is like "well ah the issue with that is that I do need to wait a month and see what happens" and it's like jUST STOP LETTING ANGEL FUCK YOU and she's all "right right right" only for us to fast-forward a few chapters and find Cassie AGAIN telling someone "well the issue is I need to wait another month because Angel did in fact show up out of nowhere and I am actually incapable of like not spreading for him so when you think about it that way it's really not my fault"

[gaelmeee]

Drawing Seiji & Nicholas 🤺🤺

[roomoroses]

Johanna van Veen, from My Darling Dreadful Thing: A Novel

[galacticrambler]

I recently checked out The Ghostkeeper by Johanna Taylor. This was a really cool story.

Johanna did the story and the artwork in this book, and they paired very well together. This YA novel is perfect for anyone into ghost stories.

The Ghostkeeper follows the story of Dorian Leith who can see and talk to ghosts. He helps them try to move on to the afterlife by listening to and working with them on their problems. Then, the key to death’s door goes missing and all the ghosts are trapped.

How does Leith navigate being able to talk to ghosts, his best friend being his ghost grandma, and the cute boy at the bookshop without being completely ostracized by the village? Not too well!

Whenever I’m reading a book, I always think about if it could also work as a movie or a show. The Ghostkeeper would definitely work as an animated movie. It would be tremendous. The scenes with the ghosts could be colorful, beautiful, and frightening all at the same time.

This book is a lot of fun, and you should check it out.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.