sarasreadingnook's reviews
513 reviews

Good story that shows the struggle of immigrant families trying to run a business in a new country.

Lucky Cat is a Children’s picture book written about an immigrant family moving to America opening and running what they hope will be a successful restaurant. June’s Mama is excited that there is a Lucky Cat left behind at this restaurant. Although June and the new feline do their best to to help out, it appears that Lucky Cat is not able to help out as she would like to and that, funny enough, luck might not be on her side. With time, June’s family works hard to find a business venture that will work for them. And learn that luck is not everything - hard work and dedication pay off.

One of the major strengths of this picture book is the beauty of the illustrations, most often occupying the entire page. At times, it feels like looking at stills from a major film production. There are beautifully captured character emotions and details in the book. Though, I’m not a fan of the image of the Lucky Cat stuck in the wash - of course this is a fictional, magical cat but I think this visual is just unnecessary and doesn’t add to story. Additionally, the text was difficult to read in pages that have a grey background with black text.

Regarding the story, I like the overall themes, that real luck is earned through hard work and perseverance. While June of course wants to help out , it is a bit odd to me that June is more concerned about the businesses than her parents appear to be at times. However, being the daughter of an immigrant family that ran a family business myself, I understand having concern as a child and trying to help out. I just wish June didn’t feel like she had to take so much responsibility for it all since she’s just a kid after all.

Overall, I think this is a good story and enjoyed reading it as it shows the amount of hard work and perseverance it takes for immigrant families to succeed when moving to a new country.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

This is a super informative nonfiction children’s book all about the Earth’s crust presented in a fun and engaging way!

Some topics discussed include:
- layers of the earth’s crust
- animals and planets that live underground
- caves and underground natural resources and their respective industries (e.g., mining)
- gemstones, fossils, gold and stones
- submarine locations, animals, and caves
- geysers, thermal springs, tectonic plates, and volcanoes 
- the earth’s core

To keep the readers engaged, there are beautiful images that vary in size from small to large, filling two pages, and some even include illustrations. The text is visible, though at times I think it could have been a little bit larger for early readers. Additionally, I think that for learning and comprehension, the incorporation of a glossary may have been useful for learners (especially for the bolded terms and other terms such as the term “fluorescent”) as there is quite a lot of new scientific and advanced terminology. A glossary may also be beneficial for instructors who may want to prepare educational material from this book.

I think this would be a great educational resource for classrooms.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

I was initially looking forward to reading this book because I thought this would be fun and cute. The title is a little nod to chemistry: we balance equations with coefficients so that there are an equal number of atoms on both side of the equation in the end. So, I did really want to enjoy it. With regards to book content, there are some tropes in here that readers may enjoy, such as: dual POV, forced proximity, and other contemporary romance tropes. However, there were several things I didn’t enjoy. The warped power dynamics and how early they set as well as their results are something I can’t get behind. I was so thrown off from the Prologue and Chapter 1, things happened and decisions were made so I knew this would be a challenge for me to read. The relationship between their parents and how this is presented and executed, again, not into it. Plot didn’t maintain my interest. I felt that the main characters lacked maturity and I couldn’t root for them. 

There are anime/manga references thrown in as well, so this may be appealing for some reader, as well as the tropes mentioned previously. Unfortunately, this ended up not being the book for me. 

Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced release copy. All opinions are my own.



Content Warnings: sexual content, swearing, cancer-related parental death prior to the events of the book, mistreatment, alcohol.

Purrfect book for library and cat lovers, alike!

This was a fun and short picture book starring Baker and Taylor as they try to uncover a mystery: what are the famous library cats of New York City’s public library? And how do they find them? 

As the two cats seek out these felines they use the transit system and traverse the streets of NYC. Being a studious and literary cat, Baker has brought along his guidebook and together he and his friend, Taylor, make sense of their surroundings while learning tons of facts about NYC! I thought this was such a fun way to incorporate an educational component into this picture book and it’s so much fun when they finally find out exactly what the NYC library cats are. 

The illustrations are so charming and display beautiful detail of the cats and their surroundings. The text is easy to read and the dialogue and narration component is written well. It includes information on how diverse NYC is, it’s population size, and information about the wide range of languages spoken in the city. And, at the end, there are info pages of the New York Public Library and other landmarks in NYC. 

Absolutely wonderful book that fosters a love of the two cats, the discovery of new sights and locations when travelling, and of libraries! An absolute joy to read. My cat Olivia and I read this together - this is highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Paw Prints Publishing for this advanced review copy. This was voluntarily read; all opinions are my own.

This one really missed the mark for me. Initially, I was intrigued by the synopsis and was looking for a new manga to get into. But I’m afraid this just was not for me.

It felt like the story was quite rushed. The art style was overall fairly consistent with what I would expect from a slice-of-life, school themed manga. Each panel mostly focused on illustrating the main characters, with simple back drops of either shaded backgrounds or sometimes a clear backdrop. There were some frames that were more intricate, though I think this would more detail would have been appropriate since this focuses on an art major, therefore with more detail it would have supported that theme a bit better, in my opinion. The dialogue and interactions between characters at times lacked maturity and sensitivity, and is not dialogue I would expect from art university students or professors. Unfortunately, there was a lot of off-putting and demeaning language and behaviours/gestures that threw me off. 

So, essentially, this manga was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an eGalley for review. All opinions are my own.
Source: NetGalley and Amazon purchase (book archived prior to reading)

Entertaining, fun, and faithful adaptation of Anne of Green Gables!

The setting of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables is stunning. There is the beauty of the nearby ocean, with beaches filled with reddened sand. And the smell of the lush greenery and delicate flowers that are abundant during the warm months. This is quite a famous classic and I was so thrilled to see that there was a manga copy available since this provides a new arena for this story to be told, in an addition to all other adaptations (e.g., film, audio theatre, graphic novels, etc.)

Now, let’s discuss the manga itself. The manga is quite true to the book, which is the first of many books about Anne Shirley. The original book itself was written in 1908 and covers Anne’s life from the age of 11-16 in which you see a lot of personal growth and development of her character with time. The manga does a great job of illustrating Anne, her adoptive family, and other characters, as well as the home in which Anne lives. I was very impressed with the care that was taken to ensure the setting and scenery appeared accurate. Some characters have differences in appearance and I think those distinctions were translated quite well using manga artwork!

Anne has a very distinctive voice and doesn’t quite talk or act like anyone I’ve read about in any other book - and I think this was very well captured by the manga, which appears to be quite similarly and well adapted from the original dialogue. In fact, all of the characters - their dialogue and actions feel quite authentic!

I also appreciate the ancillary information at the end of the book which includes Crystal C. Chan’s thoughts and process on adapting the book: setting the focus, processing the details, Easter eggs, notes on incorporating feminism into the manga, and the ways in which manga is a strong medium for presenting the book.

In my opinion, this is the most entertaining, fun, and creative adaptation I have read of Anne of Green Gables that also manages to stay quite true to the original book. It was a total joy to read and I’m so happy it is in illustrated form since I think it has the potential to create an impact on young readers and fans of manga, alike!

Thank you to NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions are my own.

Haunting, entrancing, and so poetic.

Absolutely beautiful story of a biracial Jewish girl who is sent away to stay with her aunt in Prague. I was soon hooked after reading the first chapter and read this book late at night finding it difficult to put down.

Ilana is torn between pursuing her parent’s wishes of having a stable career, for example in the sciences or medicine, and becoming a violinist. While she’s in Prague, she learns about a forgotten Jewish ancestry, encounters a ghost name Benjamin and also a man with no shadow, Rudolf Wassermann and is compelled to know their stories.

The book stresses the importance of remembering our history. Quick and impactful read - I recommend this to anyone who enjoys poetic storytelling and is intrigued by the synopsis. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a review copy. All opinions are my own.

Second chance romance, friends to lovers, and so much fun!

Two main characters I love: Gabe (gym owner; Peurto Rican/Mexican heritage) and Michelle (freelancer and web designer; Peurto Rico/Italian heritage). Gabe is set to start a new gym in NYC and his business partner unknowingly reaches out to Michelle who has a very complicated past with Gabe.

What I really enjoyed most about this book was just how much fun it was to read and how witty it was! I feel like I just flew through it. I adored both characters which had backstory's that had depth to them and truly showed how influential their past has been for both of them, separately and together.

It’s well written, it’s funny, it’s intense – a little too much for me at times haha but it was fun to read, overall!