Candy Bunny Reader

 TW: Bullying, predatory relationships, terminal illnesses are all mentioned here.  This book had been on my TBR forever, and I am happy to report that this book was a great one! Lonely Castle in the Mirror by   Mizuki Tsujimura follows Kokoro, a 7th grader who's been avoiding going to school after getting bullied. One day she discovers the mirror in her room is glowing! She then finds herself on the opposite side of the mirror in a castle run by the mysterious Wolf Queen. Several other kids her age are there, too, and they've all been skipping school for similar reasons. They are tasked with finding the Wishing Key, which will grant them a single wish, and they must complete the task by March 30th before the castle vanishes. However, if any of them choose to make a wish, all their memories of each other and being in the castle will be erased.  Kokoro ends up forming close bonds with each of the other kids there while dealing with her own problems back home (mostly w...

  Well, did you know this movie is based off a book by Eiko Kadono ? Or have you ever read the book after watching the movie version? The book follows the similar premise of a 13 year old witch named Kiki who comes from a long line of witches. She also leaves on a full moon night with her talking black cat Jiji to a city by the sea, stays with a baker named Osono and her husband, and also runs a delivery service.  Other similarities include Kiki meeting an aviation-loving boy named Tombo, becoming friends with an artist lady who lives in the woods, making a delivery for an elderly woman, and becoming popular in her community.  The similarities end there. There are many things the book has that were not in the movie, or were changed for the movie.  For one, book Kiki has waaay more deliveries. There is one delivery at least every chapter after she arrives in the city. Some smaller ones are not even explained in great detail. In the movie, I think she only had 3 or 4 ...

  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...

OMG.  This is a new all-time favorite! Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa is about Sentaro, an ex-convict who is paying off debt he owes by working at a small dorayaki shop. One day an elderly woman named Tokue comes in and notices the "now hiring" sign, and she asks Sentaro if she could work there. Sentaro notices that her fingers are all crooked, too, and he wonders if it's a good idea to hire her. After Tokue has him her try her own sweet bean paste recipe for the dorayaki, Sentaro loves it and hires her. More and more people start to drop by the shop and business is booming. One customer who visits frequently is a teenager named Wakana, who doesn't have a good relationship with her parents but eventually becomes friends with Sentaro and Tokue. Sentaro is happy that the shop is doing well thanks to Tokue, but the owner (his boss) finds out about Tokue and her crooked fingers, and she tells Sentaro she found out that Tokue came from a sanatorium that housed people...