User Profile

I really appreciated the decision to keep a lot of the native slang words in the book and have a dictionary for you to be able to see what it meant if you weren't able to tell. It helped a bit with the immersion of remembering that you're in Yop City in Africa. I also enjoyed the detailing at the end where they explained the choices in clothes and patterns that they wear and how the community of women work together. Not all the characters are likable which also adds a little dose of reality.

My biggest complaint is just that there are sudden abrupt changes from one page to another, so I had to frequently go back to the previous page to see if I missed something, and that added some confusion and difficulty to the reading. Overall, I did enjoy this, and would recommend it if you're interested in reading a slice-of-life graphic novel from another country.

This was ok, but didn't really grab me. It was predictable (which is not always a bad thing) and the chemistry just fell a little flat between the two characters. The transition from friendship to dating just wasn't very satisfying. And it drove me insane that the cover shows Nash with black hair, when the blonde hair is a major point brought up in the book.

So overall, I found this to be a fun little read. One of my kids read it for book club and wanted me to read it, so here we are!

The author's note in the beginning irked me a little bit, because why is there a need to express that your animal story is not like other ones because your animals are not stand-ins for humans? The dog doesn't ever reference using his sense of smell, knows what rectangles are, knows what all the animals are called that he interacts with, and knows what tourist means. I don't have an issue with that, but when you knock on other books for using animals as stand-ins, I feel you should put more effort into it. This is a kid's book, there's no need for it.

Overall, though, I did enjoy the story. The animals have all formed a community around each other to keep everyone apprised of changes to their park and to keep everyone safe. They're living their lives assuming the park is all there is and never leaving even to see where the humans go when they leave. That is, until some goats come to the park and blow their world open.

I was quite surprised at the turns that happen and was not really expecting the ending. I can totally see why this was picked for a book club read and why my daughter enjoyed it so much. But I had a hard time not nitpicking little things after that author's note. It had really good community vibes (unless you were a duck) and all the animals care for each other, and I did have to chuckle a bit through the book. It's one that I would say kids would definitely enjoy, but adults may have a bit of a harder time with just overthinking it.

I had a hard time getting through this book. At first, I thought it was the audiobook, so I switched to the physical copy. And that was heavily needed, because every chapter was from a different character, and I had to constantly reference the "family tree" in the beginning to track how this person was related to the story. And I put family tree in quotes, because it includes coworkers and friends as well, which added to the confusion. Carly is the main recurring character, but there's not enough seen from her actual perspective to really connect with her.

I enjoyed the aspects of seeing how immigration challenged the different characters in different ways and how they managed to handle it, but it just felt too diluted with so many people.

This one was a book that focused heavily on the traumas inflicted upon a family throughout generations. There is a heavy emphasis on community and families coming together to support each other during really tough times, even with their own internal complexities. This was not an easy read due to the events that happen (biggest TW for me would be: sa of a minor, domestic abuse), but it shows the resilience of Black women who have had to deal with so much just to be able to survive.

The book can be a little difficult to follow at times due to the chapters jumping between timelines. I listened to the audio book, but saw that the physical copy has a family tree in the beginning, so if that's something that you have a hard time with, I would definitely recommend reading instead of listening to this one. I had to backtrack a lot in the beginning until I got familiar with all the characters.

If you're a fan of the podcast, this will be right up your alley. Instead of following Cecil this time, you follow Jackie, the pawn shop owner, and Diane, the single mother of a shape-shifting kid, as they wind up trying to solve the same case of the mysterious man in the tan jacket.

The audiobook has the same narrator as the podcast, so you get the same voice and weird emphasis that adds to the story. I'm sure the book is ok on its own, but it always helps to have that extra oomph of vocal goodies. It is a little rough in the beginning as you're getting background on two different people, but they do come together more as the book goes on.

If you have not listened to the podcast, I would recommend giving an episode or two a listen to see if it's something you might find enjoyable because overall it is a little off-kilter.