Candy Bunny Reader

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui  is a graphic novel memoir about the author and her family and their story of being refugees during the Vietnam War, and how they came to live in the US. The author tells her story with the framing device of becoming a new mom, and her trying to understand her own parents and why they acted the way they did with her growing up. So it doubles as a surviving war story and a generational trauma story.  This was really great, heartfelt, and very informative! The author has some really gorgeous artwork.  I gave it 5 stars . Considering what this story is about, it has a lot of trigger warnings. Please read with caution. 

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   ...and also drawing in general. It's been a while since I read something from Raina Telgemeier ! I read Smile, Sisters , and Drama way back before I started my blog. So how is this newer book of hers that she wrote with Scott McCloud ? The Cartoonists Club is about a group of friends: Mikayla, Howard, Art, and Lynda that form a club at their school dedicated to writing, drawing, and sharing comics. Each friend has some sort of struggle when it comes to writing and drawing their stories. Mikayla has a lot of ideas but usually doesn't know how to get started. Howard often times gets in trouble for focusing too much on comics and not enough on his schoolwork. Art just likes using their hands and creating things in general, and wants to hone their skills. Lynda is very shy to share what she draws because she thinks she's either not good enough or what she draws is too personal.  Luckily, with the help of their school librarian, Ms. Fatima (yes, that's her name!), the ...

    Well, as you can see, I actually listened to it on audiobook.  The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo is a novel written in verse. It's about 15 (later 16) year old Dominican-American Xiomara, who lives in the Harlem neighborhood of NYC. She writes poems narrating her life living in the place. From dealing with her overly strict and religious zealot mother to her friends, first boyfriend, and the poetry club at her school to her bond with her twin brother, Xavier. It's very cathartic for her! I really enjoyed listening to this! I found myself being moved by a lot of the poems, especially the ones about the power of community and generational trauma. It was a nice surprise since I'm a reader who doesn't usually like or read poetry.  It's a very diverse book, too! Most of the characters are Dominican, Father Sean (a priest of Xiomara's church) is Jamaican, and Xiomara's brother Xavier is gay and in an interracial relationship.  I gave it 4.5 stars , but that...

 TW: Mentions of scandals, losing a parent, and shootings. It's been a while since I read something by Leah Johnson ! The last thing I remember reading from her was Ellie Engle Saves Herself (you can read that review here ) two years ago, and a year before that my favorite book so far from her You Should See Me in a Crown (you can read that review here ).  So how was this book? Rise to the Sun is a dual POV book about two girls: Olivia and Toni. They both find each other at a weekend-long music festival while hanging out with each of their best friends. Each girl is trying to escape from something that's weighing each of them down. Olivia with her most recent breakup (not to mention a scandal with her recent ex-boyfriend), and Toni after losing her musician father.  The two girls end up bonding during a scavenger hunt and over their favorite musicians performing at the venue. Their respective friends Peter and Imani end up falling for each other, too.  But when a...

Sheeta's Little Big World is manga trilogy by Yuki Kamba . It seems to take inspiration from the Studio Ghibli movie The Secret World of Arrietty , with elements of survival stories. Sheeta lives with other littlefolk in a small village in the woods somewhere after he was abandoned by his father. He becomes close friends with another boy named Nala. One day, the two boys see smoke coming from a giant tree from afar, and Nala runs away to see what it is. Sheeta then has a mission to find Nala and find his father, too. Sheeta relunctantly teams up with another littlefolk named Izuna, who holds a grudge against Sheeta's father for something he did to him in his past. As they travel, they learn to survive of the land, and encounter other littlefolk with problems they help to solve. It doesn't sound too bad, doesn't it? That's what I thought at first. The first book had a solid beginning. Book 2 still wasn;t too bad--I just didn't like how a large chunk of it was sp...