MMGM and #IMWAYR: Princess Princess Ever After!

I've only got one short review this week, but hey, it's more than zero, and we love that!

Also, I want to say thank you for all the kind comments you all post, especially those from last week—I have been a little short on time to post my own comments and reply to y'all's, but I appreciate your kindness all the same, and wanted to say that here!

With that, let's dive in!

Early Reader/Middle Grade:

Princess Princess Ever After

Written and illustrated by K. O'Neill

Graphic novel · 2014

Add it on Goodreads · Preview the illustrations

· · · The publisher says: · · ·

When the heroic princess Amira rescues the kind-hearted princess Sadie from her tower prison, neither expects to find a true friend in the bargain. Yet as they adventure across the kingdom, they discover that they bring out the very best in the other person. They’ll need to join forces and use all the know-how, kindness, and bravery they have in order to defeat their greatest foe yet: a jealous sorceress, who wants to get rid of Sadie once and for all. Join Sadie and Amira, two very different princesses with very different strengths, on their journey to figure out what “happily ever after” really means—and how they can find it with each other.

· · · · · ·

Honestly, I am too brain-fried to write a long review of this book, so it will get a review as adorably short as it is (it clocks in just over 50 pages)!

I just love K. O'Neill and their comics—The Moth Keeper and The Tea Dragon Society were two of the most inclusive, compassionate, warm, colorful, all-around good-natured books I've ever read. Reading these books, you get the sense that there are kind people, and then there's K. O'Neill, who seems to have reached peak kindness enlightenment and literally wants to make young readers feel happy, and hopeful, and loved.

Princess Princess Ever After is a perfect addition to this canon of warm, welcoming books. It's got a quicker sense of humor than O'Neill's other works, subverting all kinds of princess tropes and even making room for a little mischief in the process. Sadie and Amira learn to love the traits of theirs that other people criticize, they show kindness to people too easily categorized as villains, they teach other people that it's okay to accept help (even—gasp!—from women) (/s), and they are unabashedly themselves. It's just delightful.

Every word and every panel in a K. O'Neill book is flawlessly executed, and that holds true here. And O'Neill is deliberate about including characters of all kinds of gender expressions, sexual orientations, races, and body types in this story (as in all their works).

I'd personally start with The Moth Keeper if you've never read a K. O'Neill book—it targets an MG audience where this book and the Tea Dragon series target younger readers, so it has more depth and layers to ponder. But when you read that book and inevitably want to read everything O'Neill's ever published, add this one to your list too—you'll love it.

Currently reading:

Yummy

A History of Desserts

Written and illustrated by Victoria Grace Elliott

Middle grade · Graphic novel · 2021

Add it on Goodreads · Preview the illustrations

· · · The publisher says: · · ·

Cake is delicious, and comics are awesome: this exciting nonfiction graphic novel for kids combines both! Explore the history of desserts through a fun adventure with facts, legends, and recipes for readers to try at home.

Have you ever wondered who first thought to freeze cream? Or when people began making sweet pastry shells to encase fruity fillings? Peri is excited to show you the delicious history of sweets while taking you around the world and back!

The team-up that made ice cream cones!

The mistake that made brownies!

Learn about and taste the true stories behind everyone’s favorite treats, paired with fun and easy recipes to try at home. After all, sweets—and their stories—are always better when they’re shared!

· · · · · ·

This book is so adorable, I could genuinely pass out—I hope to find some time to finish reading it soon!

That's all for now—take care, and happy reading! ✨✨