More interesting reads we came across at this year’s L.A. Time Festival of Books. The Glitter Dragons — Dragon Girls is a new fantasy series for young readers, written by Maddy Mara. The first book is Azima the Gold Glitter Dragon. “Azmina, Willa, and Naomi are thrilled to learn they’re Glitter Dragon Girls. Summoned to the Magic Forest by its magnificent ruler, the Tree Queen, the girls quickly find out their dragon-selves have unbelievable abilities. They can soar above the treetops, breathe glitter-y bursts of fire, and roar loud enough to shake the ground.With this newfound magic comes a big responsibility, however. As Dragon Girls, they are sworn protectors of the forest and must help keep it safe from the troublesome Shadow Sprites, who are determined to take the forest’s magic for their own.” All this and more are available now in trade paperback from Scholastic. Roar!
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Working Your Meow-scles.
It seems like cats are getting into all sorts of business these days — in mangas at least. Check out Cat Massage Therapy by Haru Hisakawa. “Nekoyama, worn out after another long day at the office, stops at a therapeutic massage parlor — only to discover that it’s run by a cat! Not only that, but the cat actually does the massaging?! As the professional ‘meowsseur’ digs soft toe beans into Nekoyama’s aching muscles, his heart warms and his worries melt away. This is only the beginning, as he and other world-weary workers are about to meet the other feline professionals who have mastered pawfully cute techniques to reduce human stress.” Available now in full color from Seven Seas.
This Bummer is Actually Pretty Cool
Jylene Morgan is an author we met at this year’s L.A. Times Festival of Books. She creates illustrated stories for children — based on the real-life adventures of her family. Her first book is called Bummer: Our Pet Bighorn Sheep, and it’s exactly that — the story of her family raising a wild bighorn sheep from infancy when it wanders onto their rural farm. The second book, Bummer and the Nanny Goat (illustrated by Matthew Mew) carries on with the story as Bummer tries to learn getting along with a grouchy female goat. Ms. Morgan also took things in a more fanciful direction with her book There Was A Moose On Clifford Street. Visit her official web site to find out more and hear more stories.
More Equal Than The Others?
Over the years there have been many adaptations of satirist George Orwell’s famous work Animal Farm, both on stage and on screen. Most often, each of them have deviated in some way from the author’s original story, an allegory for the Russian Revolution and the subsequent rise of centralized power under Joseph Stalin. Now we’ve been informed by Animation World Network that Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle) and his company The Imaginarium have joined up with Aniventure (Riverdance) to create a new CGI version of the story that Mr. Serkis will direct. It’s currently in production at Cinesite. No word on a release date — yet!
What, We Worry?
We met Janie Stapleton at WonderCon this year. On her web site, she describes her art like this: “I find inspiration in nature and people watching, and I like my work to strike an awkward balance of gallows humor and bright colors. My work explores emotional intelligence, neurodivergence, and interpersonal connection through lighthearted drawings and comics.” And so she’s created various funny-animal-themed online comics like Animal Logic and The Adventures of Anxiety & Mouse. More recently, she’s run some successful Kickstarter campaigns to release her comics in paperback book form. See if they can help you relax.
Cold Reality
Look, there’s no way we can describe The Misewa Saga better than the publishers do — so here’s what they say: “Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in an epic middle-grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.” The first book in the series is called The Barren Grounds. Two children of the First Nations in Canada find themselves torn away from their families and forced into foster care by the government — a sad reality for many indigenous children in North America. Unhappy with their new “home”, the children search for a haven… and instead, find a magic portal into another world. There, they meet an anthropomorphic fisher (big weasel!) named Ochek, who sets out to teach them how to survive in the frozen wasteland that surrounds his village. Soon, accompanied by “a sassy squirrel”, the two humans set off on a dangerous mission to bring summertime back to the barren grounds. More books follow in the series as well, so look for them.
Little Dinosaurs… With Interesting Lives
Phoenix Baldwin is the writer and illustrator of Dinotoons, a series of illustrated books for young readers. The first title is Here Comes The Moon, where we meet young Peter Protoceratops — lost in the woods and trying to find his way home. The most recent book in the series, though, is called Formerly Known As Ella. Peter’s best friend Ella the einiosaurus decides to come out as non-binary, changing their name and pronouns. Peter, young as he is, tries to learn to understand and finally accept this. All these stories and more are available from Bookbaby.
Purr-fect Little Scamp
Well here’s something we should have been covering for… quite a while now! In 2005, no less, Nick Bruel created the first Bad Kitty book — featuring the adventures of “…a housecat who wreaks havoc around her owner’s home when she is in a bad mood, hence the name,” according to Wikipedia. Turns out there have been Bad Kitty books and graphic novels ever since — the most recent including Bad Kitty Gets A Phone and Bad Kitty For President. All coming your way from Roaring Brook Press. So you’d better look out!
Detective Dog
More from this year’s WonderCon! Lori Weiner works with a variety of animal rescue organizations. In her spare time, she’s a novelist who has created the series Dino Vicelli: Private Eye, featuring a sleuth-y greyhound. “Dino Vicelli is a world-famous detective dog who has successfully nosed and snooped his way to the top. A resident of the Barkingham Pet Hotel California, he lives in the executive luxury suite and, as a private detective, snoops on all the other dogs during the day.” Find out more at the official web site, and check out Dino Vicelli: Private Eye in a World of Evils at Barnes & Noble.