Author: Kay O'Neill
Genre:
Kids/Middle Grade, Fantasy, LGBTQ+ (F/F; M/M)
Series: The Tea Dragon Society
Verdict:
I received a free digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. NetGalley gives reviewers the opportunity to provide a fair and honest review.
Normally, I give full reviews for graphic novels - but as this is just shy of 80 pages, I think you'll forgive me!
Also, there's very few negatives to this book so that kind of halves the length of my review to begin with!
This book is a gentle and beautiful tale about Greta - a young blacksmith's apprentice (to her mother, in fact) - and her new fascination with tea dragons.
The artwork is both adorable and stunning - I dare you to not fall for those cute li'l tea dragons! And the colours are a pastel fairy-tale.
This book has so much diversity that it brings a warm spark to my little book nerd's heart!
We have characters of various races and skin-tones, a central F/F relationship, a side M/M relationship, a side character who uses a wheelchair, and a love interest who struggles with memory problems!
All of this is done in such a 'this is just the way it is' casual kind of way that anyone accusing it of tokenism or pandering to 'political correctness' needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror.
I also like the refusal of 'traditional' gender roles here - Greta and her mother are blacksmiths, and nobody thinks this is in the slightest bit unusual. And that's awesome!
There are a couple of potentially distressing scenes here - some blood, violence, and serious injury, as well as Minette's struggles with her memory problems - but nothing overly-graphic.
The majority of kids aged 9+ will be fine with it.
This isn't a book that's just for kids though! Hell no.
While kid-friendly, this is very much an 'all-ages' title - both teens and adults will love this. Because, well, dragons! (Seriously, they're so cute!)
Guys, this is one I will recommend to anyone and everyone. Don't miss out on this - it's magical.
The artwork is both adorable and stunning - I dare you to not fall for those cute li'l tea dragons! And the colours are a pastel fairy-tale.
This book has so much diversity that it brings a warm spark to my little book nerd's heart!
We have characters of various races and skin-tones, a central F/F relationship, a side M/M relationship, a side character who uses a wheelchair, and a love interest who struggles with memory problems!
All of this is done in such a 'this is just the way it is' casual kind of way that anyone accusing it of tokenism or pandering to 'political correctness' needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror.
I also like the refusal of 'traditional' gender roles here - Greta and her mother are blacksmiths, and nobody thinks this is in the slightest bit unusual. And that's awesome!
There are a couple of potentially distressing scenes here - some blood, violence, and serious injury, as well as Minette's struggles with her memory problems - but nothing overly-graphic.
The majority of kids aged 9+ will be fine with it.
This isn't a book that's just for kids though! Hell no.
While kid-friendly, this is very much an 'all-ages' title - both teens and adults will love this. Because, well, dragons! (Seriously, they're so cute!)
Guys, this is one I will recommend to anyone and everyone. Don't miss out on this - it's magical.
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I've heard good things about this. It sounds really sweet, and I love all the diversity!
ReplyDeleteIt's. So. CUTE!!!! XD
DeleteThe cover on this is beautiful! Happy you enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteI def enjoyed it! This book is awesome! XD
DeleteThis sounds so cute! I saw it a few months ago and I really like the illustrations. I'm just contemplating if I should buy it now or wait until I also know more people with children that I could lend the book to.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sweet and magic and awesomeful!!!! XD
DeleteUp to you, ofc, but if you buy it sooner, you can always lend it to kids when you actually, y'know, know some! Lol :)
I've seen this one around a little bit and it makes me so happy because it has so much diversity and I like seeing that in what I'm reading. Especially because there is a side character in a wheelchair - yay for physical disability representation!
ReplyDeleteWoop!!!! I love this one soooooo much!!!! And it's good to hear that other people have been spreading the word! XD <3
DeleteI love the title of the book! I Love dragons!
ReplyDeleteIt's great not to have the traditional gender roles for females and so encouraging that there's diversity in it.
Glad you enjoyed it. :)
It's adorable and amazingly awesome! :)
Delete(And dragons are always awesome - the Welsh flag actually has a dragon on it, so we officially win flags! Lol.)