Happy Thursday everyone! I have gotten to the point in the quarantine that I have read through all of my print books that interest me, so I purchased my first ever e-reader this week! I'm really looking forward to learning how to use it.

This week’s children’s book review is for Anna Ursu’s newest book, The Lost Girl, a magical realism story of identical twins Iris and Lark, with very different interests and personalities. After they are put in separate classes for the first time in fifth grade, each girl must discover how to cope with their unique challenges at school without the other. The girls also stumble across a mysterious antique store by their local library…Which eventually ties in to the deeper mystery about stolen museum art, a ghostly crow only one girl can see, and a man with magical (or is it scientific?) experiments.

I enjoyed this book’s many little details about the twins and their classmates, all of the characters felt like well-rounded people, even just the other girls Lark meets hanging out after school at the library! I also learned a lot about Minneapolis, where the story is set, with nice nature details as the seasons changed throughout the story. The ending was a big surprise, but it felt rushed, I really would have liked more details on the villain’s back story. Maybe there will be a prequel?

This is the first Anne Ursu book I have read, but I enjoyed it overall! You can check out the e-book via Overdrive here.

If you have kids who are magical realism fans, she also wrote the acclaimed adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, called Breadcrumbs, and that’s available on Hoopla!

For my teen and up book review this week, I finally finished The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, which is a fresh, new graphic novel adaptation of the Sabrina The Teenage Witch franchise.

Like many of you adults, I watched the live action teen sitcom version of Sabrina in the late 1990s, and had Sabrina and Salem the cat action figures, so I was excited to see what the fuss was about with this new adaptation. I didn’t know until I read the introduction of this that Sabrina was actually created in the 1960s, so she’s a much older character than I thought.

As part of the grittier reboot of Archie comics that fans can watch as the Riverdale TV series, Sabrina also has gotten a darker and much less comedic adaptation. This version of the comic is set in the 1960s, so there were a lot of neat retro clothing and furniture designs to look at! I really enjoyed the art, I could recognize most of the characters from the original TV show, and how it influenced this comic. Also introduced to me here for the first time were Sabrina’s biological parents…I only knew that they weren’t in the picture and she was being raised by her two aunts, I’d never seen her mom and dad before (PS - her dad is an evil wizard).

This is recommended for the “teen plus” crowd using the comics rating system, but I would personally recommend this book to no younger than high school, because of its graphic violence, mature content, and much darker take on the subject matter, than the show many of us grew up enjoying as tweens! Still, I will probably read on to find out more about Sabrina’s life now that she is part of the witch coven! The first volume of the comic is available on Overdrive here!

By the way, if you have younger kids interested in Sabrina, or just want some nostalgic fun, did you know that there was a concurrent animated kids’ series made to accompany the late 1990s version of Sabrina? It’s more like watching a magical girl show from that era, like Sailor Moon. It’s available to stream here on Hoopla!

Thank you for reading, I hope you and your family are enjoying the sunny weather we are having this week!

Talk to you soon,
Miss Katie