Early Book Review: Bean The Stretchy Dragon: A Sally & Bean Adventure by Ari Stocrate

Bean The Stretchy Dragon: A Sally & Bean Adventure by Ari Stocrate is a children's graphic novel currently scheduled for release on September 19 2023. Meet Bean—a stretchy, cheerful dragon who lives with a grumpy witch named Sally. Whether she’s solo or with Sally, from burying bones to meeting new friends, in this debut graphic novel Bean finds herself an adventure no matter where she goes. A dash of sweet, a pinch of spooky, and plenty of humor.

Bean The Stretchy Dragon is a book that reminds me of classic easy readers with the bold illustrations and large, limited text. I have somehow missed seeing the Webcomic of Sally & Bean, so I had no idea of what to expect, I just thought the cover art was cute. Once I started reading I was glad that the cover drew me in. I thought the art was consistent and cute through out, and I loved the cryptozoological explanations of the critters living in the swamp with Sally and Bean. Some of the pages, with the arrows and descriptions, reminded me of the Scaredy Squirrel books in the very best ways.  I though the book was fun to read and to look at and I think there are many readers, of all ages, that will also enjoy the read. 

Book Review: Calculated Risks (InCryptid) by Seanan McGuire

Calculated Risks is the tenth book in the InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire. It is the second book in Sarah's point of view. I highly recommend reading this series in order (not just because I love it, but because it will help with the nuances of character personality and motivation). If you do not want to start from the very beginning, at least start with the beginning of Sarah's story arch. 

Just when Sarah Zellaby, adopted Price cousin and telepathic ambush predator, thought that things couldn't get worse, she's had to go and prove herself wrong. After being kidnapped and manipulated by her birth family, she has undergone a transformation called an instar, reaching back to her Apocritic origins to metamorphize. While externally the same, she is internally much more powerful, and much more difficult to control. Even by herself. After years of denial, the fact that she will always be a cuckoo has become impossible to deny. Now stranded in another dimension with a handful of allies who seem to have no idea who she is--including her cousin Annie and her maybe-boyfriend Artie, both of whom have forgotten their relationship--and a bunch of cuckoos with good reason to want her dead, Sarah must figure out not only how to contend with her situation, but with the new realities of her future. What is she now? Who is she now? Is that person someone she can live with? And when all is said and done, will she be able to get the people she loves, whether or not they've forgotten her, safely home?

Calculated Risks is a continuation of a great story on so many levels. Sarah has fought so hard to come back to herself- only to get kidnapped and bring about dimensional travel and mayhem. Trying to figure out how it all happened, and how to fix it, she has to deal with the mental gaps the whole thing has caused in her family and the innocent bystanders that have gotten caught up in the whole thing. I think that as usual, the depth of character and world building here is fantastic, even the secondary and even less important characters have complexity to them, and feel real even if readers do not get all the details about them. I felt for the college kids trapped on campus, the strangers they meet, and the depth of history and emotion forgotten by Sarah's core support system. Fans of the author and series will need to read this, anyone foolish enough to start here will be utterly lost and confused (but hopefully inspired to go back and start at the beginning). My only disappointment is the same that I feel at the end of each of these books- that this part of the story is over and I have to wait for the next installment.  

Calculated Risks is exactly what I needed from this series, it left me satisfied but craving more. 

Book Review: Magic For Nothing (InCryptid) by Seanan McGuire

Magic For Nothing is the sixth book in the InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire. I have listened to a few of this series on audiobook and loved them. The ones I have listened to are from Verity's or Alex's point of view, so It was nice to get another look at the Price family.

As the youngest of the three Price children, Antimony is used to people not expecting much from her. She’s been happy playing roller derby and hanging out with her cousins, leaving the globe-trotting to her older siblings while she stays at home and tries to decide what she wants to do with her life. She always knew that one day, things would have to change. She didn’t think they’d change so fast. Annie’s expectations keep getting shattered. She didn’t expect Verity to declare war on the Covenant of St. George on live television. She didn’t expect the Covenant to take her sister’s threat seriously. And she definitely didn’t expect to be packed off to London to infiltrate the Covenant from the inside…but as the only Price in her generation without a strong resemblance to the rest of the family, she’s the perfect choice to play spy. They need to know what’s coming. Their lives may depend on it. But Annie has some secrets of her own, like the fact that she’s started setting things on fire when she touches them, and has no idea how to control it. Now she’s headed halfway around the world, into the den of the enemy, where blowing her cover could get her killed. She’s pretty sure things can’t get much worse. Antimony Price is about to learn just how wrong it’s possible for one cryptozoologist to be.

Magic For Nothing is the in depth introduction to Antimony, after also seeing her through her family's eyes so far. She is just as capable as her siblings, but has her own troubles to face. She has to hide her identity to find out just what the Covenant knows, and what their plans are before there is more fall out from her sister's televised fight. Things get more and more complicated as she has to go further undercover and comes to care about the members of the show she was sent to observe. Readers get a much better understanding of Anne, and an even deeper look at the current state of the Covenant and the crypto world as it stand in the series. I loved watching Anne find her place in each of the new situations she finds herself in, and getting the explanations of how she feels with her family, and how that affected how they see her.  Combined with her skills and the dangers she has to faceb made me connect with Anne in ways I did not connect with Verity or Alex. The combination of character development and introduction with the adventure and danger was extremely well done, and I cannot wait to see where Anne's story goes from here. In fact, I already have the next book in my Audible queue. 

Magic For Nothing is another fantastic book from McGuire. I am eager to listen to the next book in this series, and her books are on my must read list.