Candy Bunny Reader

A cute graphic novel I picked up on a whim. Pizza Witch by Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins follows Roxy and her cat George. Roxy wants to be the champion witch at making pizza (a kitchen witch if you will!) like her idol, Jeremy. Jeremy is the owner of a famous pizza restaurant, Pizza Warlock, which is also where Roxy works. He always sends Roxy on quests to get ingredients. Roxy wonders when she will finally hone her skills on making pizza magically. Well, one day she gets sent on this much bigger quest to find the legendary ingredient: The Remarkable Oregano. It isn't easy, but she does manage to make a girlfriend along the way named Erin, and she finds out something not-so-nice about Jeremy, too.  I had a lot of fun with this book! It's very predictable, but that for me was a good thing--I was just in the mood for a light, comfort read.  I did give it 4 stars , but that's because I thought the ending was a little abrupt. I honestly felt that it was kind of a cliffhanger....

 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...

Yes, I am just reposting what I posted over on Instagram, but I think this makes the post more fun to look at.   

TW: Acephobia, harassment, toxic friendship all are mentioned. You can see a full list of trigger warnings here: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Let%27s_Talk_About_Love_by_Claire_Kann   My second Claire Kann book!  Let's Talk About Love is about the biromantic asexual college student Alice, who just broke up with her girlfriend and (now also ex) roommate Margot. She tries to forget about the breakup by moving in with her now engaged childhood friends Feenie and Ryan, bingewatch her favorite shows and write essays on them, and chow down on her favorite foods. She is also trying to find out what to major in at college. Her family wants her to go into law because that's what they all do, but Alice's interests lie somewhere else. One day at her part-time job at a local library, they get a new employee named Takumi. The second Alice sees him, she's head over heels! They start hanging out as friends a lot outside of work, but Alice is afraid to come out to Takumi as asexual...

    This is the third book in the Norendy  Tales series by Kate DiCamillo . Each book is a standalone story, but all set in the same world. You can read the reviews of the the first two books in this series here: (one is The Puppets of Spelhorst , the second is The Hotel Balzaar .) Lost Evangeline is the tale of a shoemaker who dreams of being a sailor. One day he finds a tiny girl (tiny like Thumbelina!) in a boot, and he decides to adopt her and name her Evangeline. The shoemaker loves telling stories about the sea to Evangeline. Evangeline also likes to sings and play games with her father. All is well at first, but... One day the servant of a sickly rich woman hears Evangeline singing, and he decides to trade the shoemaker's wife for her, thinking her singing will cure the sick Madame. He offers hundreds of gold coins. Evangeline's mother, the shoemaker's wife, jumps at the chance to send her tiny daughter away while she is asleep, as she believed Evangeline brought a...

  As a One Piece fan, I had to pick these up. This is not going to be like my typical reviews since there isn't much to say about these two books. I also can't get too into them because I know not everyone here has read or watched One Piece. Wanted! is just a compilation of random comic stories that creator Eichiro Oda wrote before he officially started One Piece. The last comic, Romance Dawn, is basically a rough draft for One Piece! i gave it 4 stars . One Piece Heroines Volume 1 is a light novel of stand alone stories set in the world of One Piece following four of the female characters: Nami, Robin, Vivi, and Perona. They are pretty lighthearted, so they're great for reading if you want a break from the intensity of the main One Piece storyline.  Or if you're in the mood for something more chill. I gave it 5 stars .

      A kids' manga I found on a whim!   This first volume of Hikaru in the Light by Mai Matsuda is about a girl named Hikaru who likes singing at her family's bath house. She is a really good singer, and she dreams about becoming an idol just like her childhood friend, Ran.    One day Hikaru finds out about an audition to form a new girl idol band that will be hosted by popular and successful record producer M. Hayama. Hikaru signs up. Much to her surprise, Ran signs up, too. She just quit the girl group she was a part of, and decided to partake in this audition for a new girl group to improve on her dancing and singing skills. The two friends support each other through the audition process, and they end up making the cut!    Hikaru and Ran and a bunch of other girls end up going to a training camp for idols.    Throughout all of this, Hikaru finds out that becoming an idol isn't easy peasy. But it should be easier with Ran by her side...

  This book was a part of the 12 books 12 friends challenge.  Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man about the Natural World by Christian Cooper is a memoir about various parts of the author's life: growing up in New York, his family, finding out he was gay, his time working at Marvel, traveling the world, and many more. Everything is tied together through his love of bird watching. As he tells us stories about parts of his life, he also drops facts on different kinds of birds and how you can be a good birdwatcher, too. It's a cool memoir! I especially liked the parts where he talked about working at Marvel, and how it was like growing up as a gay black man in the second half of the 20th century. I also have a mild interest in bird watching, and I had no idea so many things went into trying to find birds.  I do have to give it 4 stars though, because the book did feel a little disjointed at times. There were some chapters I felt that the author was trying ...

  I think Rachael Lippincott is slowly becoming a new favorite author of mine! Before we start, the title of this book is quite misleading. It is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. It has P&P in the title because the main character Audrey gets transported back in time to the Regency era, which is when P&P also happens to take place. So even if you weren't a fan of P&P like me, you might still like this book! But why does Audrey get transported back in time to the Regency era? Well, things haven't been working out so well for her recently. She just broke up with her boyfriend Charlie and has just been waitlisted in her dream art college. Audrey has had no inspiration to do any art, and has gotten bored working at her family's convenience store every day. Although, one frequent visitor to the store is a mysterious man named Mr. Montgomery. One day, to pay for his newspaper, Mr. Montgomery gives Audrey a quarter. It's a magical quarter that transports he...

  My second attempt at something written by Io Sakisaka . A couple of years ago I tried watching the anime of Ao Haru Ride but I couldn't get into it. But I decided to give another one of her series a chance, so I picked up Sakura, Saku . So far I am liking it! I am thinking about going back and giving Ao Haru Ride another chance.  This series is about a girl named Saku who is helped out by a mysterious stranger named Ryosuke Sakura on the train to school one day when she feels dizzy and almost loses her schoolbag. But she didn't see how he looked like, and she wanted to find him to thank him, since the phone number he left her doesn't work. And ever since that one day, she's wanted to help people out every chance she gets. Saku finds out a guy in her class named Haruki Sakura has an older brother named Ryosuke, and she thinks that's the guy she was looking for. She asks him to connect her with his brother, but Haruki is reluctant because he thinks Saku is another o...

All the books I read in July! I read a total of 5 books, and they were all really great. 1. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono-4 stars . Full book description here on Goodreads. Read my (kind of) review here . I mostly just compare the book and movie.  2. Messy Roots by Laura Gao-4.5 stars. Full book description here . Read my review for it here  . 3. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender-4 stars. Full book description here . Read my review here . 4. Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty-4 stars. Full book description here . Read my review here . 5. The Legend of Shadow High by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale - 4 stars. Full book description here . Read my review here . 

  Have you ever had expectations for a book that were... just a little too high? Fun fact: I originally DNF'd (did not finish) this book a few years ago, but I decided to give it a second chance. Was it good the second time around? Well... The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall is a middle-grade novel about four sisters (oldest to youngest): Rosaline, Jane, Skye, and Batty, and their father, spending the summer in a cottage that is part of the grounds of a huge mansion. They become friends with the landlord's son, named Jeffery. They love each other's company, but Jeffery's mom thinks that the Penderwick sisters are a bad influence on him, and she has other plans for her son that he doesn't like. Along with their adventures with playing in nature, and playing with the pet rabbits of the groundskeeper named Cagney, the Penderwicks try to help Jeffery deal with his overbearing mother. This sounded like something right up my alley, and I enjoyed it for the most part, but ...

  (Pic was found on Google Images) Another underrated and great book by LM Montgomery ! The Story Girl is about two brothers, Beverly and Felix King, who go to visit their cousins (named Felicity, Cecily, and Dan King) in Prince Edward Island for the summer, and part of the fall. The book in general is slice of life with no overarching plot, and it follows the situations, ranging from serious to comical, of the King cousins and some other friends. The family friends include Sarah Ray, a neighbor, and Peter, a hired boy for one of the wealthy families in the area, but the family friend that stands out the most is neighbor Sarah Stanley, or The Story Girl, which is what everyone calls her, because she loves to tell all kinds of stories. It’s also not to confuse her with Sarah Ray. The Story Girl likes to tell stories that have happened to people they know in their community, or stories she makes up herself, or even fairy tales and mythology. Almost every chapter of the book has Th...

(Pic was found on Google Images) The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is an adult historical fiction literary novel about the Vignes twins--Desiree and Stella, and their families. The Vignes family is black and they are light-skinned black people. They lived in a town called Mallard, in Lousiana, which was a town with mostly light skinned people. As they were growing up, the sisters were inseparable. Life wasn't always easy, but they had each other. But when they moved to New Orleans to get jobs, Stella decided to pass as a white woman in order to get a job as a secretary. Then she fell in love with her boss, a white man named Blake, and they moved to Los Angeles and had a daughter named Kennedy. Stella decided to lie about her true heritage and family.  The other sister, Desiree, got in a relationship with a black man named Sam, and had a daughter with him named Jude. Desiree got a divorce from Sam because he treated her poorly, and so she and Jude moved back to Mallard to care for...

It's been a while since I read a Margaret Peterson Haddix book. The last one I read was the last book of the Shadow Children series in the first half of this year. The School for Whatnots by Margaret Peterson Haddix is about Max, a rich 10 year old boy whose rich family wants him to grow up with the best life possible. So his parents sign a contract for him to go to school with whatnots. Whatnots are very humanoid robots that look like real children, but they are all super well behaved and polite. Max does not know that he went to school with a bunch of humanoid robots, until he receives a strange note from his best friend from school, a girl named Josie. Josie herself has her own secret, too. She is actually a real human. Her family is very poor but her father agreed to let her sign up for the high-class whatnot school as it guarantees great education--which could be a key to a financially better future--as long as Josie pretends to be a robot.  Anyway, Josie's note to Max r...

I read a total of 7 books and here are my ratings on them (as well as their respective reviews if applicable): The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O'Neill -a cute and cozy fantasy graphic novel of two friends who learn to raise tea dragons alongside a couple who have experience with all kinds of dragons. Great disability and queer rep. Full review here . 5 stars Cosmoknights 1 by Hannah Templer - a feminist sci-fi graphic novel of a young woman who teams up with two women who star in gladiator-style games to win princesses hearts, but secretly let the princesses go. Full review here . 5 stars Moonstruck 1 by Grace Ellis -an urban fantasy graphic novel of some friends who work at a coffee shop but after an outing goes wrong, they need to reverse one of the friends back to normal. Full review here . 4 stars Bone Volume 9 by Jeff Smith -the very last volume to the Bone series. Great ending! Bone is one of my favorite series of all time. 5 stars My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead Geo...

(Pic was found on Google Images) Okay, here's the thing, I actually read this book several months ago, but I couldn't talk about it because the HarperCollin's strike was going on (this book was published by HarperCollins). But since the strike ended a few months ago, it's about time I talk about it! This is the second book I've read by Sharon Creech so far in my lifetime. The first one I read was Absolutely Normal Chaos when I was in middle school. I remember loving that book and I decided to read more from her. Since this was one of her more popular books, I thought it was about time I read it.  Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech is about 13 year old Sal Hiddle, who goes on a cross country road trip with her grandparents to find her mother. About a year before the story, Sal's mother left her and her father, and Sal wants to find her and understand why. She and her family were also living in Kentucky, but moved and lived in Ohio shortly after Sal's mother le...