Candy Bunny Reader

This series (both the manga and anime) has gained some popularity recently! I got around to starting it a while ago. As of writing this I read the first 4 volumes. They've all been 4 stars. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe is about an immortal female elf mage named Frieren. She and her group of traveling magical fighter companions defeated the Demon King a long time ago, and have gone their separate ways. The fellowship lasted 10 years, and for Frieren, being an long-living elf, it felt like a very short time for her, and she didn't develop much attachment to her peers. But then one day years and years later one of her peers in the group, named Himmel, dies of old age. Frieren feels sad that she didn't spend more time to know him better, and she plans a new journey with new friends Fern, Stark, and Sein to go to the land of souls to talk to Himmel's spirit. Along the way, they encounter and accomplish mini-missions, just like any ty...

  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 ...

I only read 5 books last month, but they were all highly rated! I hope you found a new favorite book in April, too. 1. The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo. This is the first of a new series by Kate DiCamillo. It follows 5 sentient puppets: a girl, a boy, a kind, a wolf, and an owl. They used to be owned by an old sailor with the last name Spelhorst. The puppets get donated and bought by two rich young sisters named Emma and Martha. They decide to write and perform a play with the puppets, but a series of mishaps happen that get in the way of play being performed, but when it gets performed, it turns out to be a success. Very whimsical and fairy-tale like short book. Gave it 5 stars . Full review here .  2. Avatar North and South Part 1, 2, and 3 by Gene Yang. Still continuing on with the Avatar graphic novel sequels, this time set in Katara and Sokka's homeland, the Southern Water Tribe. All 5 stars ! 3. Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech. Another top favorite of mi...

Another great book by Kate DiCamillo ! The Puppets of Spelhorst is about 5 sentient puppets: a boy, a girl, a king, an owl, and a wolf. They get bought by an old sailor with the last name Spelhorst. After the sailor dies, the box gets donated, bought, and gifted to two young rich sisters--Emma and Martha. They decide to write a play for the puppets that they can perform, but before they can, the puppets get into some mishaps in and around the girls' house. Eventually the play is performed, and the puppets find out what their true purpose is. I love the whimsical style the story was written in. It felt like a modern day fairy tale. I'd say this book is like a mixture of DiCamillo's two other most popular books: The Magician's Elephant and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. They are both short books with a huge emotional impact, and they are both about sentient toys.  Apparently this is also the first in a series. I can't wait to read more! It is a pure 5 star ...

(Pic was found on Google Images) This is the second book I have read (well, this one for today I listened to on audiobook) from this author. I enjoyed it waaay more than the first book I read from her ( The Secret Garden , which I gave 2 stars). It is worth it to give authors another chance! A Little Princess by Frances Hodgeson Burnett is about Sara Crewe, the daughter of a wealthy businessman/officer. She has just come back from India and will attend a boarding school for girls in London. Sara is a sweet girl with a huge imagination, and everyone in the school has taken a liking to her. Especially a girl named Ermengarde and another girl named Lottie. Well, almost everyone likes Sara. Miss Minchin, who is the headmistress, a two mean girls named Jessie and Lavinia, can't stand her. One day, Sara receives news that her father made a bad investment, and he lost all of the family's money. Shortly afterward, her father dies of an illness. Miss Minchin decides to downgrade Sara ...

(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...

Have you ever been unsure if you were going to like a popular book, but you give it a try and you end up liking it? That's what happened to me with this book! She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippencott and Alyson Derrick is about two young women in their first year of college--Alex and Molly. Alex does not have the best life at home (parents had a nasty divorce, mother fell into alcoholism, financial struggles, etc.) and she just broke up with her girlfriend, Natalie. Molly is very shy and had friendship troubles in high school, and she wants to get out of her comfort zone in college and finally make some real friends. Alex and Molly meet at a party and Alex finds out about Molly's crush on another girl named Cora. Cora actually went to Molly's high school and is now at the same university. Alex befriends Molly and they make a deal to help Molly get Cora. Alex also makes a deal with her ex-girlfriend Natalie to show her that she is capable of opening up to people by befriend...

  I think I found a new favorite manga series! Akane-Banashi by Yuki Suenaga and Takamasa Moue is about Akane, a teenage girl who grew up watching her father practice and perform rakugo. Rakugo is a traditional Japanese art where a sole performer tells a short story and plays all of the characters, usually while seated. While she was in elementary school, Akane's father and a bunch of other candidates took an exam to rise up in the rankings of rakugo performers, but for some reason the judge proctoring the exam decided to expel all of them. Akane's father gets a job in construction work, and Akane decides to take his place in being a rakugo performer to showcase that rakugo can be a real job. Over the years she starts taking secret lessons from her dad's old instructor, and during her teen years she slowly makes herself known among his other pupils and rakugo fans, all while trying to perfect her craft.  I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this! I saw this manga...

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this! The first volume of Magical Boy by The Kao is about Max--a trans guy who is descended from a line of magical warriors who have to protect the earth from these giant bug monsters who feed off of peoples' negative feelings. The magical warriors of his family got their powers from the goddess Aurora. Max doesn't like this new magical warrior responsibility at first, as his outfit looks really feminine, and his mother (the previous magical warrior) expects him to do his magical duties the traditional way. That includes "acting" really feminine, something Max is obviously uncomfortable with. But with the help of his friend Jen, a new friend named Sean, and an enemy turned friend named Pyper, Max begins to do things his own way. They work together to try to stop the bug monsters from destroying the Earth. His magical outfit also looks less feminine over time.  This book was a blast! I loved this take on a magical warrior...

Just like the last book I reviewed on here, you don't know how long I've been wanting to get around to this book. Bicycling with Butterflies by Sara Dykman is a memoir about the author's true story of how she charted and followed the migration paths of monarch butterflies from Mexico to Canada and back to Mexico again. She completed the whole journey via biking! Every chapter of the book recounts every place Dykman biked through and stopped at. She found lots of monarchs, but all sorts of other wildlife too, most important of them all being milkweed, which is what monarch butterflies need to lay their eggs. She also talked about how and where she would find places to camp out in her tent for the nights she was on the road. It wasn't always easy! During her journey she would sometimes go to schools and universities to talk about her journey and scientific research and facts she knew about monarch butterflies. She also talked about all of the people she met along the way...

  You have no idea how long I've wanted to read this memoir. I finally got to read it this past month! My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme is Julia Child's memoir. It is her story on how she got into cooking after she and her husband Paul Child moved to Paris, France. They moved there because of Paul's job at the US Embassy there. In her first few years in France, Julia learned to cook all sorts of French dishes and desserts at a world famous cooking school, and she met two of her long-time collaborators there: Simone Beck (nicknamed Simca) and Louisette Betholle. Julia then got the idea of making a cookbook with French recipes, but for an American audience. Aside from talking about her everyday life in France, she also gets into details on how she, Simca, and Louisette wrote there first and most famous cookbook: Mastering the Art of French Cooking . It was not an easy process! But their book became super-successful overseas (in the United States), to ...

  (Pic was found on Google Images) Yup, another massively underrated book by LM Montgomery . I listened to it on audiobook this past month.  Jane of Lantern Hill is about Jane Stuart, who lives with her mother and grandmother in a mansion in Toronto. Jane does not have the best life there--her grandmother rules the place with an iron fist and is always being condescending towards Jane. Whenever Jane's other relatives visit, they are not kind to her either. Jane also gets bullied a lot at her school. Only Jane's mother and Jane's next door neighbor and friend Jody are kind to her--but Jane doesn't get to see them every single day (mother likes to go out to parties and hang out with friends, and Jody works as a maid at the boarding house she stays at and the landlady doesn't let her see Jane everyday). The main reason Jane's grandmother isn't kind to her was because she didn't approve of the marriage between her mother and father, so she despises Jane for ...

This is the second Kelly Barnhill book I've read so far. The first one I read was The Girl who Drank the Moon back in 2021, which I gave 4 stars to. The Ogress and The Orphans is set in a fantasy world in a small town called Stone-in-the-Glen, which has fallen on hard times ever since the town's library burned down and other buildings such as the school have mysteriously been destroyed, too. Now no one trusts each other and almost nobody ever leaves their homes. The town orphanage has also been struggling financially. The owners and the orphans are very supportive of one another, and they've been trying to get the town to come together again, especially on market days where they sell handmade soap and food from their mini-farm, but to no avail. At the same time on the outskirts of the town, an ancient Ogress has started to live there and she has noticed how the town has been struggling, so every night she secretly leaves food, baked goods, and handmade cards to the people...

  (Pic was found on Google Images) I listened to the 2nd Moomins book by Tove Jansson on audiobook a while ago!  Comet in Moominland picks right up where the very first book, Moomins and the Great Flood , left off (review for that here ). The Moomins and Sniff are living in their iconic blue house, and go on many adventures and meet new friends along the way. These new friends are actually the rest of the iconic Moomin characters: Snufkin, Little My, the Snorkmaiden, the Snork, etc. Yes, they all make their very first appearances in this book. The overarching plot is that there are rumors of a prediction that a comet is going to come to Moominland and destroy everything, and everyone is really scared! But since it's the Moomins, you know it will have a happy ending. The comet does fly through the sky and everyone sees it, but it doesn't land in Moominland. Everything is fine, obviously. Just like the other two Moomin books I read, this was a beautiful, heartfelt, masterpiece....

(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...

  Just like the title of this post says. Book Lovers by Emily Henry is an adult contemporary romance novel about a woman working in the book publishing industry named Nora. Nora is trying to help one of her clients, named Dusty, get her book published, but the coworker she is stuck working with to make it happen is a somewhat uptight guy named Charlie.  Nora's sister Libby then invites her to go on vacation so they can unwind at Sunshine Falls, a small town near Asheville, North Carolina. While they are there they try to accomplish a list of things to do that are cliche movie tropes found in small town Hallmark-esque movies, such as going on dates with locals and going to unusual tourist attractions. Nora happens to run into Charlie while there, and it turns out his family lives in Sunshine Falls and he came back to help his family with their family business, a bookstore that's beginning to fall apart. While they continue to butt heads at first, Nora and Charlie slowly start ...

The second Amber Brown book. You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown by Paula Dazinger follows Amber Brown during the summer before fourth grade. She and her Aunt Pam go to London, England, and then Amber will visit her dad in France. Unfortunately, she catches the chicken pox while in London, so her has to rearrange her plans of sightseeing and seeing her father as she gets treatment. She also wishes her parents could get back together and remarry.  The book title gets its name from a letter Amber's friend Justin sends her when he talked about one of his new classmates who got the chicken pox and said they look like button candy. But then he reminds her jokingly she can't eat her chicken pox, even if they look like little red pieces of candy. The book's story overall is as simple as it sounds, but it was entertaining enough for me! It made me feel like going to London for vacation.  I did give it 4 stars though. Some of the things Amber says about London ...

  These are books I read in their entirety this year. These are not books I DNF (did not finish). That will be it's own separate post. The best books of the year will come later this week. That will be more in list format since I read so many good books this year. This post and the DNF post which will also come later will be more detailed since I read very few books I didn't like this year. 1. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (pictured above) This book is about a girl named Mary Lennox who grew up in India and has been spoiled her whole life, but is also really lonely and craving company. After her parents die, she is sent to live with her rich Uncle Craven in the UK. There she meets a ton of new, friendly people and starts forming real human connections, and discovers a hidden garden that belonged to her late aunt that her uncle closed up after she died. Mary starts a mini project to tidy up the garden and make it look good, and forms more human connections thro...

  I've known about the graphic novel series since I was in elementary school because a lot of kids in my class liked it, but I didn't start reading it until now. Just like every series I review on here, I will only review the first book without spoilers, and I will occasionally update you all when I am reading the subsequent books.  The first volume of Bone by Jeff Smith is titled Out from Boneville. Our MCs are the 3 Bone cousins: Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone. They got kicked out of Boneville because of some really bad thing mostly Phoney Bone did (he's also a shady businessman). They accidentally become separated when a huge swarm of locusts chase after them. They then all try to survive without each other. We mostly follow Fone Bone (on the cover of this book) as he tries to survive in the huge woods through the winter. He later encounters and even becomes good friends with a young girl named Thorn and her grandmother, and they let him stay on their fa...