#this gives me the same feeling as old school pooh bear cartoons

[carriagelamp]

A Bear Called Paddington

One of those childhood classics I had never gotten around to reading, though I definitely grew up very aware of Paddington. For those who somehow haven’t heard of him, A Bear Called Paddington is about a little bear from Darkest Peru who is forced to immigrate to England. The Brown family runs into this little bear at the Paddington train station (where he gets his name) and decide to take him in since he had no where else to go. The rest of the story follows Paddington’s various well-meaning hijinks. It has a similar feel to the novels of Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins. Definitely a slower book than a lot of children’s novels these days, but still super charming; this would make a great bedtime sort of story.

Battle Bunny

One of the funniest picture books I’ve seen in ages. It’s made to look like someone took an old Golden Book (“The Birthday Bunny”) and rewrote it as The Battle Bunny. You can read the “original” wholesome story about a little Bunny visiting his friends around the forest on his birthday, and then the relentlessly goofy, violent version of the Battle Bunny on his quest to conquer the forest.

Black Clover

...Okay but this is just Naruto. It’s about a spiky pale-haired boy in a headband with a dark-haired rival. Said spiky-haired boy is absolutely talentless but makes up for it with relentless determination and despite this complete lack of skill is convinced he will become the hokage- I mean, the Wizard King. He takes a ninja- wizard test, and when he passes he gets a new headband and joins a small team where he goes on missions for the community. His first mission involves him going to a mist-covered island where the village people are being tormented by a mercenary with ice magic...

Despite all this, it was an okay read and was kind of charming. If you liked Naruto, it wouldn’t hurt to check out Black Clover. On a more serious note, it’s about a world where everyone has magic abilities, to greater or lesser degrees, and when they come of age they receive a magical grimoire that gives them access to more abilities. The main character, however, has absolutely no magical potential and receives a grimoire that, instead of casting magic, has the ability to cancel out other people’s magic.

Bug Boys

A very charming graphic novel about a pair of beetles (Rhino-B and Stag-B). These stories are episodic little adventures of this pair as they meet other bugs and explore the land around the Bug Village. The tone is kinda wild because it goes from very simplistic goofy comic stories, to shockingly deep and metaphoric. Kind of has an Adventure Time like vibe?

Emily of New Moon

A Canadian classic. This is a second series written by L. M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables and it has the exact same style as Anne. In some ways one might argue that it’s repetitive of the last series, but honestly it’s exactly what I want. While I love Anne of Green Gables I never cared as much for the rest of the series, all I wanted was more Anne as a child, not Anne as an adult, and that is exactly what Emily of New Moon delivers.

It’s the story of Emily Starr, an imaginative, sensitive child, who is orphaned when her sickly father passes away from TB. Rather than leave her to an orphanage, her late-mother’s estranged family, the Murrays, adopt her out of familial duty and bring her to live on the strange, old-fashioned New Moon farm. There Emily learns to contend with the Murray pride, starting school, making new friends, and blossoming into an avid writer.

I’ve read this book plenty of times, and listening to an audiobook of it again was such a relaxing experience. I would recommend this to anyone that likes period pieces about whimsical childhoods and strongly written young girl characters.

Minecraft: The Island

This was my Completely Shocking Book Of The Month because I started it as a joke and, to my total amazement, kinda fell in love with it. But then again it is written by Max Brooks, author of World War Z. This ended up being a survival-horror isekai that actually sticks the landing, and this is coming from someone with zero interest in a) Minecraft and b) isekai. It’s like Hatchet, if Hatchet took place in a video game world and involved amnesia. I love stories that involve needing to learn a new set natural laws to navigate a world and this book has that coming out its ears.

It’s about a main character (with no specified gender) who wakes up and finds themself in a strange, cubed world, with a baffling array of rules. The MC needs to come to terms with being in complete isolation, surrounded by monsters, and constantly contending with starvation, fear, and confusion as they try to learn how to survive and understand this strange world they’re trapped in.

The Nameless City

Written by someone who worked on the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics, which isn’t surprising because this series has a very strong Avatar vibe, in all the right ways. It takes place in a politically volatile city. As it’s the only pass through the mountains, this city is constantly conquered and reconquered by neighbouring powers. This book is about Kaidu, a child of the Dao empire, the current occupying force. He was sent to the City to meet his father, one of the local generals, and in the meantime meets Rat, one of the city children who is actually affected by the constant violence and control of the occupiers. If you liked Avatar you should give this trilogy a go because the characters are very endearing and the art is beautiful.

Peter & Ernesto

Years back I enjoyed the weird little cartoons made by this fellow, when he was using the name The Grickle; I didn’t realize he was now making graphic novels. These graphic novels very much have his humour and art style all over it. These books are about two sloths: adventurous, optimistic Ernesto, and anxious, fretful Peter. Despite their differences, they’re best friends and are there to pull each other out of scrapes.

Rick

I’ve read Alex Gino’s other middle grade novel, George, which was about a transgirl coming to terms with her identity in grade four. This new book, Rick, takes place in the same world, though you don’t need to have read George first. Rick is about a boy who was best friends with the bully of the first book, and, now in middle school, is coming to realize that not only is his friend not the sort of person he’d always believed he was, but that his own sexuality might not be so clear cut either. On a positive note, this is the first time I’ve read a middle grade novel that deals with asexuality, and Gino creates rich, warmhearted, living worlds in their books. However, it also felt like it was trying to take the past ten years of tumblr queer discourse and cram it almost verbatim into one book which was… a lot to deal with. It felt rather preachy and repetitive of debates I’ve already been forced to live through, and I don’t always appreciate the conclusions the author draws on those debates.

Honestly, more than anything I would say read George instead, it felt like the much stronger book of the two to me.

The Rock From The Sky

Fascinating children’s book. Jon Klassen’s books are always bizarre and strangely toned for children’s books, and this one is no exception (this is the author who wrote Where Is My Hat and the like). I don’t know how to explain it without spoiling it, so honestly if you want a deranged children’s book, give it a read. All I can say is that, yes, a rock comes from the sky. Does it ever.

Sweep: A Story of a Girl and her Monster

An amazing novel! This takes place during the Industrial Revolution, about a chimney sweep named Nan Sparrow. After being abandoned by The Sweep, the only guardian she can ever remember having, she’s been scraping a living under the cruel thumb of the master sweep to whom she’s indentured. However, when she gets stuck in a chimney fire, certainly about to die, she finds that the char she’s kept in her pocket, the only thing left to her by The Sweep, has woken up and is, in fact, a tiny soot golem there to protect her. Nan and her tiny monster now have a chance to escape Nan’s servitude, and carve out a life for themselves in the grimy London streets — and more importantly, hidden up on the grimy London rooftops.

You Should See Me In A Crown

I decided to read this because I’ve always heard rave reviews for it, but honestly, it wasn’t for me. I can see why people do like it, it’s very much a cottoncandy sort of read, but it’s also very much not my genre. I didn’t love high school slice of life stories even when I was in high school, and it’s only become less appealing as I’ve grown up. And this high school in particular feels like it was lifted directly from a Disney Channel original movie. Way too much American prom culture. So yeah, if you’re into that sort of story, then it lets you experience that genre with a queer protagonist, but personally I didn’t bother finishing it.