| Hello All, I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! It was so hot that I tried to get my dogs to go swimming in a plastic pool, but all they wanted to do was drink it 🙂 This past week I was in the mood for some escapism and graphic novels, so I wanted to share a couple with you! It was nice to sit with my new waterproof e-reader outside with the dogs and read them without having to worry about getting a paper (library) book damp! The first book I read was The Tea Dragon Society, by Katie O'Neill, an author/illustrator from New Zealand! This book, which has spawned a three-book series (so far!), a card game, and stuffed animals, combines whimsy and tea, two of my favorite things! The graphic novel is divided into seasons, beginning with springtime. Greta, a blacksmith in training, first happens upon tea dragons when she sees one run across the road. There she is led on magical adventures (featuring various types of tea). After learning that the dragon is owned by the proprietors of the local tea shop, a pair of semi-retired adventurers and their daughter, Greta stops by often to learn about the history of tea dragons (they can live to be up to a thousand years old! They eat fruit and bugs!), the stories of the owners' adventures, and befriends the shy Minette! To add to the cuteness, Greta has a magical pet of her own, the adorable fire-sprite named Brick who looks like they just stepped out of a Studio Ghibli film! While the title currently isn't available as an e-book, you can read the entire comic as a webcomic for free from the author's webpage! Also check out her brand new comic adventure about an axolotl named Dewdrop, available on Hoopla! Continuing on my magical forest adventure theme, this week I finally (after almost ten years) finished the last volume of the Mushishi manga by Yuki Urushibara! The publisher of the manga went out of print shortly after releasing the last volume, and I had waited to buy and read it for the longest time, because there's something so difficult about a series being over for good that always makes me reluctant to read the last book, to see the author's story end! Gingko is a white-haired, eye-patch-wearing mysterious healer wandering through feudal Japan, and each chapter contains a different story of his interacting with various mushi, which are spirits from poltergeists to demons to parasites! It's fascinating to see how the mushi he sends back to the spirit world are drawn by Ms Urushibara to reflect the type of magical chaos they cause in the human world! Throughout the ten volumes of the manga, we also learn, bit by bit, about Gingko's background, and how he became the healer he is today. Mushishi is available both in print or as the acclaimed anime adaptation from our library, once we reopen, I hope you will check it out! I would compare this manga favorably for teen fans of Giant Spider & Me by Kikori Morino (so far, three volumes are translated and available in the library catalog both in print and digitally through Overdrive) about a girl named Nagi who lives a lonely life in the mountains until she befriends a huge, magical spider! Not everyone in town is as thrilled with Nagi's new friend as she is, as the two ramble on magical quests together, eating lots of delicious food on the way! I hope I have given your family some armchair adventures to go on together...That's all from me for this week, friends! Talk to you soon 🙂 Happy reading! Miss Katie |
