Tag: Doreen

Mossy And Tweed: Crazy For Coconuts by Mirka Hokkanen

What a delightful first graphic novel for young readers! As I’ve discussed elsewhere on this site, how can the discerning reader tell the difference between picture book and graphic novel? This volume falls firmly in that latter category, perhaps due to the more formal nature of having multiple panels on each page as opposed to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/05/09/mossy-and-tweed-crazy-for-coconuts-by-mirka-hokkanen/

Thinking Of You (but not like in a weird creepy way): A Comic Collection by Beth Evans

This is a sweet collection of affirmations featuring Beth Evans’ cute blobs telling you that someone is always in your corner, even if they don’t know you and you don’t know them. Because it’s true, innit? There are millions of people like Ms Evans who genuinely care about the well-being of others. We may not …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/05/02/thinking-of-you-but-not-like-in-a-weird-creepy-way-a-comic-collection-by-beth-evans/

I Did It! and Let’s Go! by Michael Emberley

I was recently sent both of these delightful children’s books (one of them signed by the author, too!) and thought I’d do an appreciation post/review of both in one entry. I Did It! was written first, and is probably my favorite of the two. Our unisuited protagonist is trying with the help of their friends …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/28/i-did-it-and-lets-go-by-michael-emberley/

Bitches In Bonnets: Life Lessons From Jane Austen’s Mean Girls by Sarah J. Makowski

Okay, I know that no retrospective of Jane Austen’s work is complete without Anne Elliott, but why on earth would she have her own chapter here when she is about as far from a Mean Girl as I can think of in this canon? Elizabeth Elliot, absolutely. Ending on Anne is just a weird thematic …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/26/bitches-in-bonnets-life-lessons-from-jane-austens-mean-girls-by-sarah-j-makowski/

Outpost Zero by Sean Kelley McKeever & Alexandre Tefenkgi

Collecting the entire fourteen issue run of the sci-fi comic book title. So this book has an interesting perspective on the living-in-space genre. Outpost Zero is all that remains of a generation ship that left Earth centuries ago. The survivors have adopted something of a small town mentality, focusing on keeping their outpost alive and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/25/outpost-zero-by-sean-kelley-mckeever-alexandre-tefenkgi/

Otis & Peanut by Naseem Hrab & Kelly Collier

This heartwarming children’s book is being marketed as a graphic novel but feels very much like a picture book to me. That said, both formats are good? Especially when the story and art are both so strong. Our title characters are best friends. Otis is a long-haired guinea pig while Peanut is a naked mole …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/20/otis-peanut-by-naseem-hrab-kelly-collier/

Magical History Tour Vol. 12: The Samurai by Fabrice Erre & Sylvain Savoia

As someone who has spent a patently absurd amount of time playing Legend Of The Five Rings, a role-playing game heavily inspired by Far Eastern cultures, it’s always fascinating to me to see how lacking my knowledge of Japan actually is. Books like this one gently correct my misperceptions, in the most interesting way possible. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/19/magical-history-tour-vol-12-the-samurai-by-fabrice-erre-sylvain-savoia/

The Night Tent by Landis Blair

My middle child loved this book so much that he took off with it after we finished reading it and I still don’t know where it is, lol. Landis Blair’s first picture book is the story of Watson, whose fears of the creatures in his closet and under his bed prevent him from feeling sleepy. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/18/the-night-tent-by-landis-blair/

The Little Wooden Robot And The Log Princess by Tom Gauld

I didn’t even know Tom Gauld had written a children’s book! This is his first of hopefully many, especially given the delightful allusions peppered throughout this volume to the title characters’ adventures while on their epic journey. Once upon a time, a king and queen lived happily but for the fact that they had no …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/11/the-little-wooden-robot-and-the-log-princess-by-tom-gauld/

Codex Black Vol 1: A Fire Among Clouds by Camilo Moncada Lozano

with colors by Angel/Michi DeSantiago. This is a really fun graphic novel that I almost bounced off of in the first few pages because it’s so darn dark. And I don’t mean in mood: I mean that it’s so visually murky that my brain was refusing to engage with the images on the page. I’d …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/06/codex-black-vol-1-a-fire-among-clouds-by-camilo-moncada-lozano/