Genre:  Adventure / Steampunk / Fantasy / Drama

Year Published: 2016

Year Read:  5/24/2017

Publisher: Image Comics

Series: Monstress Issue #6

I would like to thank NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

What is this story about? 

In this issue, Maika and her crew finally make it to the Dusk Court, only to be ambushed by the Dusk Court themselves and they ended up locking Maika up in a casket in order to experiment on her. Meanwhile, the Warlord wages war against the Dusk Court, effectively cornering Maika and her crew in the process! 

Will the demon inside Maika wake her up in time to defeat the Warlord and her army?

Read this book to find out! 

What I loved about this story: 

Marjorie Liu has done it again and this time, this issue not only has great character moments between Maika and the demon, but it is also the most action packed of the series! I loved the way that Marjorie Liu wrote Maika and the demon’s relationship with each other as it is quite unique to see the demon and Maika trying to come to an agreement to save themselves from both the Warlord and the Dusk Court and I really enjoyed the funny quips that the demon and Maika has with each other. I also enjoyed the way that Marjorie Liu wrote the action sequences with the Warlord’s army fighting against the Dusk Court as it was written extremely well and exciting to read about as I was sitting on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who was going to win this battle! Sana Takeda’s artwork never fails to amaze me as the war sequences between the Warlords and the Dusk Court are beatifically detailed and I also loved the scenes of Maika and the demon exploring Maika’s inner memories as Maika takes on a ghostly appearance to separate herself from her memories which are in color.



What made me feel uncomfortable about this story: 

There are some scary images in this issue, especially of the demons that are shown in this book. I will not reveal which characters are the demons in this issue since I do not want to spoil this story for anyone, but these characters’ true demon forms are truly terrifying to look at.

Final Thoughts: 

Overall, “Monstress Volume One: Awakening Part Six” is a truly fantastic finale to the first volume of Marjorie Liu’s legendary “Monstress” series and I definitely cannot wait for the second volume to come out!

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  Adventure / Steampunk / Fantasy / Drama

Year Published: 2016

Year Read:  5/24/2017

Publisher: Image Comics

Series: Monstress Issue #3

I would like to thank NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

What is this story about? 

Continuing from the previous issue, Maika tries to evade the Warlord’s assassins as they are sent out to capture Maika at all costs! But when Maika discovers that she has a terrible new demon inside of her, after she activates the mysterious mask that she had stolen from the witches’ stronghold, Maika will soon discover that this new frightening power inside of her will cause her a lot of turmoil in the long run.

What I loved about this story: 

Marjorie Liu’s writing continues to be extremely strong in this series as this issue focuses more on Maika discovering this terrible new demon that has hijacked her body after she activates the mask and how she is trying to learn more about herself and about the demon that is now inside of her. I also loved the way that Marjorie Liu continues to bring so much mystery to this story as we, the readers, try to find out exactly what Maika is and how she is able to possess such terrible power inside of her. I am also curious about the Warlord herself as she seems like a mysterious character who knows so much about Maika’s mysterious powers and I cannot wait to see what kind of character the Warlord will prove to be in the future issues! I also enjoyed the way that Maika and Kippa’s relationship with each other had developed over the series as it went from Kippa being terrified of Maika and not wanting to have anything to do with her to still being frightened by Maika’s terrible powers, but is trying hard to understand Maika as a person. Sana Takeda’s artwork continues to wow me as the characters and the environments they are in continue to glow on the pages and I loved seeing the demon itself as it looks truly terrifying as it is a dark figure that is covered with tentacles and has eyes all over its body.



What made me feel uncomfortable about this story: 

For anyone who does not like gory violence, there is a bit of graphic violence in this issue as there are people being skewered by large objects and having their limbs ripped off their bodies. Some readers might want to skim over these parts if they make them feel uncomfortable.

Final Thoughts: 

Overall, “Monstress Volume One: Awakening Part Three” is a wonderful issue that fans of Marjorie Liu’s “Monstress” series will greatly enjoy and now I am off to read the next issue of this series!

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  Friendship / School / Drama / Illness / Music

Year Published: 2012

Year Read:  11/6/2016

Publisher: Animal Media Group 

Series: Forever Friends Trilogy #1

I would like to thank NetGalley and Animal Media Group for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Introduction:

Now, Howard Shapiro’s graphic novel “The Stereotypical Freaks” has been around the comic book scene for years now, but I never had the chance to get around to reading it because of two reasons:

1. I was too busy reading other books at the time.
2. I was not interested in the book when it first came out.

However, when NetGalley recommended me this graphic novel, I decided to give this graphic novel a try and I was seriously surprised by the different genre that this graphic novel explored compared to most other graphic novels that I had read that were either adventure, action or fantasy genres and I was pleasantly surprised by the results of this unique graphic novel!

What is this story about?

Tom Leonard was your average high school senior who was pretty unpopular at his high school, his best friend Dan Roberts was considered a geek and he has a crush on a girl named Jaelithe, who does not even know he exists. Fortunately, Tom is an extremely smart boy and he is a talented rocker in his basement band. One day however, the school decides to hold a battle of the bands competition and even though Tom was reluctant at first to enter the contest, he eventually decides to enter the competition, along with Dan. But, there is one problem: Tom and Dan are the only members of their band and they need two more people to make their band complete. So they ended up recruiting Mark Bennett (formerly known as Marcel), who was Tom’s childhood friend until Mark’s football career caused him to break off his friendship with Tom and a shy quiet boy named Jacoby Nukik, who is a foreign exchange student from Canada who seems to be hiding a big secret from the band. Luckily, forming the band together caused the four boys to become fast friends and they decided to call their band “The Stereotypical Freaks!” Later on however, when one of the boys reveals a big secret that could tear the band apart, the four friends now make it their ultimate goal to win the competition to fulfill one of their friends’ wishes.

What I loved about this story:

Howard Shapiro’s writing: Wow! Howard Shapiro’s writing was simply beautiful and emotional! I never would have thought that I would read a graphic novel that was not focused on fantasy or action, but more focused on the developing friendships between the main characters and about how one school event brought them all together. I loved the way that Howard Shapiro wrote each character, as they did not act according to their stereotypes (Tom the Genius, Dan the Geek, Mark the Jock and Jacoby the Quiet Guy) and their growing friendship to each other felt so natural as they had to go through some hurtles in their relationships to become close. My two favorite characters were probably Tom and Jacoby as both characters tried to keep the group together despite the obstacles all of them had to face together. I loved the fact that Tom gave Mark and Jacoby a chance to prove themselves to be a part of the group since it shows that he bears no ill will towards anyone, no matter what their ranking in school is. I especially loved Jacoby as he is the quiet kid that I can relate to the most with since I was the quiet kid in high school; but once we learn about his tragic backstory, I really started to feel for his character and hope that he gets his wish fulfilled. I also loved the fact that Howard Shapiro was able to write a graphic novel that was about the normal everyday life of a high school student, instead of writing about superheroes or fantasy characters as it gives this graphic novel a unique tone and it was nice reading a graphic novel that was mostly an ordinary high school series.

Joe Pekar’s artwork: Joe Pekar’s artwork is gorgeous to look at as all the characters are drawn realistically and the black and white colorings of the artwork contribute greatly to the graphic novel’s mundane tone of the story. I also like the way that Joe Pekar does the characters’ facial expressions as they greatly convey the different emotions that the characters go through such as happiness, anger and sadness.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I took off half a point from the rating was because I felt that the pacing of the story was a bit slow at some points and there were times where I was struggling with finishing the graphic novel because there was too much exposition on the dialogues that tend to slow down the story.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “The Stereotypical Freaks” is a great story for anyone who wants to read about the true power of friendship and who wants to read a good old fashioned graphic novel about the trials of high school.


Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre: Adventure / Steampunk / Fantasy / Drama

Year Published: 2016

Year Read:  9/13/2016

Publisher: Image Comics

Series: Monstress Issue #2

I would like to thank NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction:

After reading the first issue of Marjorie Liu’s breakthrough comic book, “Monstress,” I was clambering for more of this series and I finally got the chance to read the second issue of this series and man was I really blown away by this second issue!

What is this story about?

In this issue, Maika had just escaped from the witches’ stronghold and even though she wanted to go there to find out more about herself and her mother, she leaves the stronghold with even more questions on her mind about her mother and about the nature of her powers. Meanwhile, the Warlord starts making her move and she has her eyes set on capturing Maika for murdering one of the head witches at the stronghold!

What I loved about this story:

Marjorie Liu’s writing: Marjorie Liu’s writing is as beautiful as ever as we actually get to see the repercussions that Maika faces after her stint at the witches’ stronghold. It was interesting seeing Maika feel so much remorse for her actions in transforming into a monster when she attacked Sophia and the other witches and you also get to see how Maika is still struggling with trying to figure out what kind of person she really is due to the nature of her powers. Even though this issue was not as action packed as the first issue, I still really enjoyed the character interactions between the characters, especially between Maika and the cat and the building tension of the Warlord trying to capture Maika. I also enjoyed seeing the two tailed cat and Kippa the fox human child make an appearance in this issue as I wanted to see more development from them and it was great seeing their reactions to Maika becoming a monster in the last issue, especially with Kippa now being afraid of Maika because of the events of the last issue. Maika’s interactions with the two tailed cat was pretty entertaining as well as she is often snarky towards the cat and it reminded me of the relationship between Coraline and the cat in Neil Gaiman’s book “Coraline.”

Sana Takeda’s artwork: Sana Takeda’s artwork is as usual gorgeous to look at, especially of all the exotic clothing worn by each character, especially the Warlord’s clothing being a black dress with jewelry hanging over it that makes her look truly menacing and yet unique in appearance. I also loved the images of the two tailed cat that looks so adorable and creative, especially with its two small tails.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

For anyone who does not like gory violence, there are some scenes of people getting their heads chopped off with blood spraying everywhere and some readers might be a bit unnerved by these images if they do not like seeing gory violence in graphic novels.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Monstress Volume One: Awakening Part Two” is another great issue from Marjorie Liu’s intriguing series “Monstress” and I cannot wait to see what happens to Maika and her crew next!

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  School / Drama / Family / Art

Year Published: 2012

Year Read:  2016

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Now, I have been reading many of Patricia Polacco’s books over the years and even though I continued to be mesmerized by her childhood stories, I have always wondered how Patricia Polacco became such a prolific artist, as well as being an effective storyteller. So, when I got around to reading one of Patricia Polacco’s newer books “The Art of Miss Chew,” I finally found out how Patricia Polacco became such a talented artist!

After Trisha spent the summer with her grandmother who was a talented artist, Trisha wanted to become an artist herself. Unfortunately, her school does not have an art class that Trisha could participate in until her Irish teacher Mr. Donovan, suggested that Trisha could join a special art class at the high school that is being taught by none other than Miss Chew! Trisha loved having Miss Chew as her art teacher, as Miss Chew helped Trisha learn the language of art and how she could see the objects she draws in a whole new light. Unfortunately, a tragic day happened when Mr. Donovan’s father passed away and Mr. Donovan had to attend his father’s funeral, leaving his students in the care of a substitute teacher named Mrs. Spaulding. Mrs. Spaulding was often cruel towards Trisha as she would not give Trisha enough time to work on her tests, since Trisha was a much slower learner than the other students; and Mrs. Spaulding even threatened to have Trisha thrown out of Miss Chew’s art class since she believed that the art class was distracting Trisha from her studies.

Can Trisha and Miss Chew convince the student board that Trisha should stay in art class?

Read this book to find out!

What I always loved about Patricia Polacco’s works is that her books allow the readers to take a look at her childhood and be inspired by the various teachers that helped her throughout her school life. I always loved the emotional touches that Patricia Polacco brings to her work as you truly feel her sorrow as she struggles through school due to her learning disability and it was great that she had teachers that really cared about her and try their hardest to help Trisha pass her classes. As soon as I picked up this book, I knew that I was going to automatically fall in love with both Miss Chew and Mr. Donovan! Even though Mr. Donovan’s name was not in the title of this book, I loved the fact that Trisha had another teacher who was supportive of her and the fact that he was from Ireland and loved his father dearly really made me love his character! But let us talk about the true star of this book and that is Miss Chew herself, as she was clearly the one who inspired Trisha to fulfill her lifelong dream to become an artist! I loved the fact that Miss Chew showed Trisha how to look at the objects she draws in a different light and I also loved the way that she continues to encourage Trisha to follow her dreams of becoming an artist no matter how impossible the odds may be. I really loved the fact that both Mr. Donovan and Miss Chew were teachers that came from foreign countries (Mr. Donovan came from Ireland and Miss Chew came from China) as it brought a whole new perspective of the teaching experience for young children. Patricia Polacco’s artwork is magnificent as the characters look so realistic and gorgeous and I loved the fact that we have a book in Patricia Polacco’s works that detailed her inspiration in becoming an artist!

Overall, “The Art of Miss Chew” is a truly beautiful and touching book about the power of art and the importance of supporting students who are struggling in school. I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the length of the book might be a bit difficult for some smaller children.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog