The Aquanaut, by Dan Santat

     A new graphic novel by Caldecott Award-winning author and illustrator Dan Santat. According to the author's notes, this book took over ten years to complete, and is dedicated to his late father, who lost the battle to cancer while this book was being created.

    The Aquanaut is the story of Sophia Revoy, the daughter of scientist Michel Revoy, who dies in a boating accident when Sophie is young. Michel was a marine scientist who, along with his brother, worked at preserving oceans and marine wildlife. Uncle Paul promises to care for and raise Sophie, but gets overwhelmed with his work and a mean-spirited boss who wants to profit from marine animals at Aqualand, an equivalent to Sea World, which is a sort of zoo for marine animals. The story gets fantastical from there and some marine creatures find Michel's underwater suit and bring it back to life, finding Sophie and trying to save Aqualand from the mean boss.

    The artwork in this book is wonderful, as you might guess from an award-winning artist. Sadly, the storyline is really bad. My description here is probably better than the story as it's written in the book. The overall notion of the story is fun and fantastic, but the details that we, as readers, look for (and sometimes take for granted, when an author does a really good job of storytelling!) are missing or very clunky, at best. In short, the artwork is wonderful, the storyline is decent, but the writing and storytelling is poor. If you like marine animals and marine science, the artwork might get you through this okay. Otherwise, there are so many other, better, graphic novels out there to discover. It's too bad, as Santat describes the personal history behind creating this book, which makes me really want to like it more. But ugh, I can't. 2 paws for the art, and a weak 1 paw for the story itself. 3 paws total, and that's a gift.

The Rabbit's Gift, by Jessica Vitalis

     I chose this book by its cover! 😄 It has been a bit since I've read anything from the fantasy genre, and the cover if this book, the second by author Vitalis, gave away the genre easily. The Rabbit's Gift is a story based on a traditional French folktale called La fee aux choux, or The Cabbage Fairy. In that story, instead of babies being delivered by a stork, which is a traditional tale in this part of the world, babies come from cabbage plants. Babies coming from cabbages?!?!! Like you, I'm guessing, I'd never heard of such a tale!

    Vitalis turned this folktale a little sideways, but in The Rabbit's Gift, two main characters - Fleurine and Quincy - both have an interest in babies and cabbages, as well as purple carrots (a change from the original folktale). Fleurine is the only daughter of a queen-like mother, and longs for the company of a sister. Quincy is a young rabbit in a family of many rabbits, trying to make his mark in the world by helping deliver babies to families who have left bunches of purple carrots out as gifts, in return for a baby! It sounds much more complicated than it really is. Luckily, Vitalis does a nice job of making sense of this story and keeping you, the reader, engaged at the same time.

    This story reminded me a lot of The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo. That is a "story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread". Despereaux is an award-winning book that everyone should read, especially fans of fantasy and folktales! I won't go so far as to say everyone should read The Rabbit's Gift, but it's a solid story just the same, and if you're looking for a good fantasy, this one is engaging and good, and won't take a lot of figuring out along the way. 4 paws!

The Evers: Forever Twelve, by Stacy McAnulty

     What if you could live forever?

    So begins this newest release from the author of The Misadventures of Lightning Girl, a book Vivi really enjoyed when she read it a few years ago (September 2020). The first book in what appears to be a coming series, Forever Twelve tells the story of Ivy, a very smart 7th grader who is aspiring to get into a really tough private school, graduate in two years, go to college and then to law school, and someday end up with a seat on the United States Supreme Court, like her idol, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. What she hadn't planned for was Abigail, her new roommate, who has a past unlike anything Ivy could have planned or prepared for. At times working together, and at other times working against each other, Ivy tries to alternately help and stay away from Abi as the story unfolds. 

    The entire book is not as confusing as it may sound here, and in fact it is a pretty smooth read. It reminds me a lot of an older book, Tuck Everlasting, in its underlying story line, and I can't say that author McAnulty does it better than Natalie Babbitt did with Tuck. In fact, The Evers doesn't really introduce anything new that other books haven't done before. That's not to say The Evers isn't a good book - it is! - but I wouldn't call it a great book. If I were to pick this up at a used bookstore or garage sale in paperback and read it, I'd be happy that I did. However, if I paid full price at a bookstore for the hardcover copy I might be a little disappointed. Luckily for you, you can check it out from the library, in hardback, for free! 

    The ending provides a nice twist, and I admit I looked forward to reading the next chapter whenever I had to attend to other things. But there isn't anything here you haven't read in other books, if you read a lot like I do. I do like McAnulty's writing - she's a solid storyteller. But I didn't find this as clever as Lightning Girl. Not sure if I'll go looking for the next book in the series, but maybe...3 paws and a wag.

Fire Keeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley

     November was Native American Heritage Month, and so I thought I'd take the opportunity to read something related to Native American culture. Another teacher at my human's school recommended Fire Keeper's Daughter, and wow!!! I'm SO glad they did...this book reminded me of Hunger Games in that it has a lot of different themes, including romantic interests as well as high action. I wouldn't recommend this book to many teens under 8th grade, and even many 8th graders might not have the patience or take the time to unpeel this nearly-500 page gem. But for those who do, you are in for a very wild ride, and a really good story!

    Main character Daunis is half-Native, living in northern Michigan on a reservation, and trying to get through life as any 17-year-old is, dealing with a lot of the same issues you might have. But Daunis's life is made more complicated by the fact that she is part-Native American, and there are realities that go along with that that I never had to face, and possibly you never did, either. One of the beauties of books is that they can act as windows into other people's lives and help us build empathy, or an understanding, of what it's like to live a different life, face different challenges, or experience things you and I have not, or maybe will never, experience.

    This is author Boulley's first book, and it is fantastic. It has already won numerous awards, as evidenced on its front cover, and after finishing it I can see why. By midway through the story I literally could not wait to read the next page! Treat yourself to this book...one of the best books I've read this year! 5 paws!