Vol 1 : The Tea Dragon Society, Vol 2, the Tea Dragon Festival, Vol 3, The Tea Dragon Tapestry
Greta is a young, aspiring blacksmith in a fantastical world with many animal-human hybrid beings. She finds a tea dragon in the market one day and rescues it from becoming dinner for some hungry wolves. Greta returns the tea dragon, Jasmine, to her master Hesekiel, a local tea house proprietor. When Greta becomes interested in tea dragons, Hesekiel and his partner, Erik, bring Greta into their fledgling Tea Dragon Society, comprised of themselves and a foundling named Minette. In the second volume, we see Erik and Hesekiel in their past adventuring days. Erik takes Hesekiel back to his village where Rinn, his niece, is trying to find her place in village life. Rinn finds a dragon who has been asleep for eighty years who was supposed to be guarding the village, but was put to sleep by the creature Erik and Hesekiel are here to take out. In the third volume, Greta has the opportunity to become a blacksmith apprentice to a well-respected master as long as she smiths a piece that inspires him. Minette, meanwhile, is struggling with her lack of memories and some of her residual powers we found out about in volume one. Greta continues to care for her tea dragon, Ginseng, who is mourning for its former master.
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Vol 3: Petals to the Metal! by Clint, Griffin, Justin, and Travis McElroy, illustrated by Carey Pietsch
The trio is back on another assignment, this time to find the Gaia Sash, which has been put to use by a thief named Raven who has holed up in a vault in the city of Goldcliff. The three meet a local cop, Hurley, who has a connection with Raven and might be able to help them slow her down. Hurley and Raven were racing teammates in the highly dangerous Battlewagon races that are super popular (and super illegal) in Goldcliff. Raven escapes the tower, but Hurley knows Raven will be in the next Battlewagon race. The only way to get to Raven is for the three heroes and Hurley to form a new battlewagon team and try to take her down in the race, and watch out for the twelve other teams trying to take down and beat them!
Adapted by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, illustrated by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín
The Atreides family is preparing to leave their home on lush Caladan and make a new one on the desert planet of Arrakis. Paul, the son of Duke Leto, is put to a test just before he leaves, and he just might be a man of prophecy the Bene Gesserit have been waiting generations for. Paul's mother, Jessica, has been training him in their ways in the hopes he can fulfill their hopes for his future. But first, the Atreides must adjust to their new life on Arrakis, and the previous owners may not have given it up so easily. Booby traps, political intrigue, and betrayal are around every corner in this hostile world. To compound things, Duke Leto needs to figure out the spice mining operation, complete with its destructive sand worms threatening crew and equipment, while trying to broker a piece with the local Fremen who survive in the harsh desert climate.
In the beginning, there was the World Flower, spouting planets and stars into existence like pollen. On one of these planets (Earth) is the hive in which we find ourselves. In it, Dvorah is capping the cell of young larva Nyuki, who is scared of metamorphosis and what the rest of life will mean for her. After metamorphosis, Nyuki emerges as an adult bee but is rather scared of the outside world. That is going to work out poorly because there is a new queen in the colony, which means the old queen must lead some of the colony away to a new site. Dvorah is going, and Nyuki must decide. It turns out, Nyuki loves flying, but there are many perils of the outside world, including praying mantis, spiders, and birds! As Nyuki grows up, she finds a special flower with the best nectar and helps cross-pollinate it with a flower across the field. Nyuki inspires a younger forager, Melissa, to become a great forager for the colony.
Book 1: The Flight of the Prince, illustrated by Michael Dialynas
Wynd is trying to be the typical boy in Pipetown - one of the last human settlements that has strict laws against anything magical or with “weirdblood.” Meanwhile, the king is on his deathbed, daily making his son promise to uphold the Blood Laws that have kept the humans of Pipetown safe from magical infection. The prince decides this isn’t the way he wants to rule, and he sneaks out in the middle of the night to find his uncle, The Duke, who has a much nicer outlook on magical folk. The king calls back his best enforcer, The Bandaged Man, to root out any other weirdbloods, and, of course, Wynd catches his attention. Wynd's adoptive mother plans the Prince's escape out of Pipetown in exchange for bringing Wynd to safety, but the plan doesn't go quite as expected. Wynd, his adoptive sister Oakley, Prince Yorik, and Yorik's trusted friend Thorn try to escape the pursuit of the King's Men, and begin to see the world maybe isn't what they thought it was.
Illustrated by Gianna Meola
Josephine, or J. B. to her friends, is your typical C-average student in high school who finishes in the middle of the pack in PE and gets Cs or high Ds on her French tests. One day, when accosted by agents demanding to know about her actions in France on a recent "business trip" with her mom, J. B. finds out she’s actually an operative for The Company, and she’s been brainwashed into not remembering her skills, training, or missions. What’s worse, is that this was all done to her by her mother, who wants J. B. to have job security within The Company! J. B. has never been in control of her full self, so it’s time to change all that and fight back against The Company and other forces that are trying to control and use her.
Illustrated by Cyril Pedrosa
In a distant kingdom that feels very much like medieval France, the king has just passed, and the coronation of his daughter, Tilda, is soon. The greedy barons want to tax peasants more and blame everything else for their poor yielding fields, but Tilda isn’t about to have her people suffer even more. The coronation doesn’t even have a chance to start when Tilda is usurped and betrayed, then thrown into exile. Flanked by her only two loyal retainers left, Tilda decides to head to the Peninsula, where there is one more loyal man left in her kingdom, one more hope for taking back her throne. Filled with intrigue, secret societies, and treasure, Tilda’s adventure is just getting started.
Mei and her father work in the kitchen for a logging camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the late 1800s, where they expertly make delicious meals for the loggers after a long day of hard work. Mei makes wonderful pies that everyone craves, and at night, she entertains the camp's children by telling fanciful stories. One such stories is the legend of Po Pan Yin, an elderly Chinese woman logger who watches over the camp and works in the forest with her giant blue ox. The children accuse Mei of stealing the American legend of Paul Bunyan, but Mei makes Auntie Po into her own myth and a guardian spirit for the camp and herself. With the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act limiting the opportunities and safety for Chinese immigrants, Mei and her father must navigate an increasingly hostile community where violence against Chinese workers is not uncommon. On top of all of this, Mei must work out her feelings for her best friend Bee, which are becoming increasingly romantic, as well as plan for her future away from the logging camp.
This is another adventure of the lovable squirrels, Norma and Belly from Donut Feed the Squirrels. In it, the squirrels are enjoying some apple pie when Gramps falls into an Apple Truck and gets carted off. He thinks he's going to a picturesque farm where he'll be able to live out his life in peace, unlike the hustle and bustle of the city life. Turns out, the farm is really a factory for making apple pies, and Gramps is in danger! Norma and Belly mount a rescue mission to save Gramps from becoming someone's dessert.
Illustrated by Jen Wang
Anda gets invited by a guild runner to join up playing a MMORPG (Massive-multiplayer-online-roll-playing-game), Coarsegold Online, as a female avatar in an all female guild. She makes a friend in game and they take on missions that pay real money. Their missions are to exterminate gold farmers who sell in-game gold to players for real money. It’s a lucrative system that is a real part of most MMORPGs. Anda makes a friend with one of the gold farmers and finds out he’s a teen named Ah Duo (Raymond in English) from China. Raymond is the same age as her, but he's farming gold online as an actual paying job in China. He has health issues, and Anda convinces him that he needs to stand up for himself with his boss, but things don’t turn out well for Raymond. Anda discovers a darker side of world economics played out in her game, and struggles with how to really help her new friend. |
About MeI've been reading manga and comicbooks for years. Now, I write reviews and other helpful things for School Librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Search this siteRatings, Audience, and Subject Tags
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