Candy Bunny Reader

  OMG! I think I found my true favorite Sharon Creech book of all time! Bloomability is now at the number two spot. The Wanderer is about thirteen year old Sophie, who goes on a sailing trip with her two cousins and three uncles across the Atlantic Ocean to meet her grandfather, Bompie, in England. They make a lot of pit stops along the way to get their boat fixed and to pick up more supplies. Sophie and her cousins also learn a lot along the way: about sailing, stories about each other, their uncles, and Bompie, and other random things like juggling. But the trip is not a smooth one! Sailing out onto the ocean blue isn't as whimsical as Sophie thought it would be, and they run into a lot of problems. Luckily, she has her family and they always support one another.  The story is actually told in alternating points of view of Sophie and one of her cousins named Cody. We learn that Sophie is actually hiding a mysterious past that she doesn't really want to talk about, and Cod...

  Today we will talk about another recent favorite author of mine! This post won't be a long one. The first books I read from K O'Neill was their Tea Dragon Society series, which I read last year. I loved them so much! Especially the third book. Here's my review for the first book. This year I picked up Aquicorn Cove, The Moth Keeper, and Princess Princess Ever After. They were all great! Especially the Mothkeeper. That one is my favorite from them so far. You can read the reviews for each book here (just click the title): Aquicorn Cove The Moth Keeper Princess Princess Ever After I love K O'Neill's books because they are all very whimsical, enchanting, and heartwarming. They also have great queer and disability representation!

  An author who recently became a favorite of mine! Well, by recently I mean by last year. The first book I read from her was her most popular one, The Girl who Drank the Moon . It was sooo magical, sweet, and cool! Although I do remember some parts of it being a little confusing.  I then read The Ogress and the Orphans , and I loved it too. Then I read The Witch's Boy, and it became my favorite book from her! Well, so far.  The rest of her books are on my TBR. I hope I can get around to reading one of these soon.  Why do I like Kelly Barnhill's books so much? Because they are the definition of whimsical, enchanting, emotional, and heartfelt. They basically feel very Studio Ghibli-like. If you like Studio Ghibli like myself, you'll like her books! Or maybe you already do. I'd like to see at least one of her books get an adaptation, preferably from Studio Ghibli. 

  This book was sooo sweet and sooo cute! The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt takes place in our world--with some magic! Sprites have lived for centuries helping all kinds of plants grow with their magic. Until humans came along and started doing gardening themselves. The sprites are still around but they help less and less. One little sprite named Wisteria secretly discovers a human girl named Elena who takes care of her mother's flower garden, as her mother is out working all day. Wisteria decides to secretly help Elena's garden grow, as long as she isn't discovered.  If you couldn't already tell, Wisteria does get discovered by Elena. And everything changes from there.  What a magical book! I love the whimsical illustrations, and I loved what a chill, slice-of-life cottagecore book this was.  It is a pure 5 star book . I want to read more from this author and illustrator. What was the last "chill" book you read?

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 ...

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...

  I've seen this manga floating around the Internet for a while, but I've only picked it up now. It is so worth the read! Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama is a high fantasy series about a girl named Coco who is interested in magic. She is told she can't do magic because she was not born a witch, but she believes with the right tools and skills, she can become one. One day Coco plays around with a magical book and pen she got from a mysterious witch she met in a marketplace years ago, and she accidentally ruins her house and turns her mother into stone.  Master Qifrey, a man she met a few days earlier at her family's artisan shop, turns out to be a witch himself, and he takes Coco under his wing after seeing the damage she's done. She then starts studying magic at his atelier along with three other girls, and starts learning magic and other important life lessons along the way, and she hopes one day to return home and save her mother. If this sounds like a whim...