Review of Princess Academy: The Graphic Novel, by Shannon Hale and Victoria Ying

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Princess Academy

The Graphic Novel

by Shannon Hale
illustrated by Victoria Ying
color by Elena Dall’aglio

Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2026. 284 pages.
Review written August 23, 2026, from a copy ordered via Amazon.com and signed by the author.
Starred Review

I ordered two copies of this book for my two 11-year-old nieces (different families) in time to have them signed by Shannon Hale at the National Book Festival. And – I had to wait in line so long, I got the entire book read!

I read and loved the original Newbery Honor-winning book back in 2005, and listened to the audiobook in 2008, so it’s been a long time, but I know the story well. I enjoyed the graphic novel, and I can’t think of anything important that it left out, though of course it’s much quicker to read than the original book.

I like the way they show that people from the village of Mount Eskel like to sing, but having words for songs and musical notes dancing across the pages, especially starting each chapter. That reminded me… and sure enough I checked, and each chapter of the original book also begins with a song. The addition of musical notes and the words flying in the air makes them come across more as songs than poems in the graphic novel.

I also like how the graphic novel portrays quarry speech – when the villagers of Mount Eskel can speak to one another across distances through the special stone of their home. In the graphic novel, these show as golden bubbles, with pictures and words inside them, but you get more of a feeling of what’s going on, and the author doesn’t need as many words of description.

Other than that, I’m not sure how well the book works as a stand-alone graphic novel, since I’m reading into it everything I already know about the story. But as far as I can tell, it gets the same ideas across in fewer words because of the visual impact of the pictures.

And the pictures are well done. I can keep better track of the various characters than when I was only visualizing them in my own head. They show Mount Eskel as a beautiful and brightly colored place.

I’ve forgotten to tell what the book’s about. A small mountain village is disrupted when the kingdom’s priests have performed divination and determined that the future princess will come from their village. So all the girls within a few years of coming of age are taken to a princess academy to learn skills like reading, writing, arithmetic, etiquette, and diplomacy. At the end of the year, there will be a ball and the prince will choose his bride.

Our protagonist Miri enjoys learning at the academy, and hopes to help her village with what she’s learned. She’s not sure she wants to leave her mountain. Besides, she has a handsome friend at home that she’s maybe having feelings for. Does she want to marry a stranger in exchange for power?

I do still hope that people (my nieces) will want to move on to the plain text book. It necessarily has more nuance – but the story did translate well into this new medium.

One other note: I put the original book on my Young Adult page because, after all, it’s about young people getting married. This graphic novel is a little more explicit that the marriage won’t happen until the chosen princess comes of age, and the style of the illustrations is more geared to middle grades than to high school, so I’m going to list this on the Children’s Fiction page.

shannonhale.com
victoriaying.com

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Review of Busted, by Dan Gemeinhart

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Busted

by Dan Gemeinhart
read by Mark Sanderlin

Macmillan Audio, 2025. 8 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written July 31, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Busted is one of those intergenerational caper novels that are fabulous when done well, and this one is exquisitely pulled off, with plenty of adventure and crazy situations for middle school students to enjoy, while simultaneously giving adult readers like me all the feels.

Oscar has grown up in a retirement community. Three days after his birth, he went to live with his grandpa at Sunny Days retirement community, and he’s got a huge set of unofficial grandparents who look after him. The book opens when Oscar is twelve years old and attending his forty-ninth funeral, for Mr. Howell, the kind man who owned the place.

When Mr. Howell’s son takes over, it isn’t long before Oscar and his Pops learn their rent is going to be quadrupled. So when a shady character down the hall offers Oscar money to do something for him, Oscar goes against his instincts and against everything he learned from the kind folks he lives with.

What Jimmy Deluca wants is for Oscar to bust him out of the nursing home. Mr. Deluca uses oxygen, wears a monitor, and is checked on every four hours. At first, Oscar thinks it’s enough to get Mr. Deluca out the door without the alarm going off, but next thing he knows, if he wants the money, Oscar has to come along.

And it’s not just Oscar and Mr. Deluca, whose mafia name turns out to have been Jimmy the Wrench. Jimmy the Wrench brought along his hairless cat, Mr. Buttercup. And then Natasha, Mr. Howell’s twelve-year-old granddaughter, inserts herself into the caper, someone much less uptight than Oscar about breaking rules.

They set off in Mr. Deluca’s classic car on what turns out to be a bucket list journey to some sketchy places, but starting with a mall, where Oscar has to buy clothes for Natasha to wear in place of the bathing suit she was wearing when she broke out of the retirement community with them. Including underthings.

Oscar figures they won’t get busted if they get back to the retirement community before a nurse checks on Mr. Deluca in four hours, but he didn’t account for Mr. Deluca’s plans.

The whole adventure is a wild ride from one thing to another. We learn that Oscar has some unusual talents as he gets to wrestle with when to worry about the right thing to do and when to worry about the good thing to do. The foursome (including the hairless cat) make an unlikely group, and this story is entertaining every step of the way – but comes to a conclusion so poignant, you might shed a tear or two.

I clearly haven’t read enough books by Dan Gemeinhart, because every one I have read has packed a punch.

dangemeinhart.com

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Review of A Kid Like Me, by Norm Feuti

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

coverA Kid Like Me

by Norm Feuti

HarperAlley, 2026. 268 pages.
Review written July 16, 2026, from a library book.

I’ve long been a fan of graphic novels about middle school. It’s a good way to show the angst, the friendship drama, the worries, the wide range of emotions. This has all of that, with some additional insights as to what it’s like for a kid from a poor family when his classmates are wealthy.

Ethan and his friend Ricky are concerned about snobby people at his new school. Ethan found some Battle Bio cards at a yard sale, but Ricky’s more into wrestling. They don’t have any classes together, and the new friends Ricky brings to their table at lunch think Ethan’s a nerd for liking Battle Bio.

And then there’s the stuff. Ethan’s mom does get him a new phone – but it’s a flip phone that doesn’t even connect to the internet. His backpack’s falling apart, and so are the shoes they bought at the discount store. His mom’s trying her best, but how can Ethan fit in when they simply don’t have the money?

When he does make friends at a Battle Bio club, a friend’s mom is afraid to let her son visit Ethan’s home in the trailer park.

The free lunch is handled well at the middle school – kids just type in their ID number, so no one knows who’s paying what, but it turns out that if he gets extra cookies or snacks after lunch, and just types in his number – his mother gets a bill.

Something I like about this book is that, while it does present a bunch of challenges, you feel like Ethan mostly manages to get past them in a healthy way. Ethan and Ricky’s friendship is strained during the book, but they’re friends at the end, and that feels realistic and healthy.

The story kept me reading, and enjoying time with a good kid who doesn’t have as much money as many of his classmates, but is still worth knowing.

normfeuticartoons.com

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Review of Midsummer Sisters, by Niki Smith

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Midsummer Sisters

by Niki Smith

Graphix (Scholastic), 2026. 270 pages.
Review written July 11, 2026, from a library book.

This graphic novel makes you feel the summer breezes at the beach.

Quinn and Kenzie have been stepsisters pretty much as long as they can remember. But the book starts when their parents are fighting, and together they’re trying to block out the noise. The next day their Gramma (technically, Kenzie’s grandmother) comes to take them to the Outer Banks, so their parents can have some time alone and work things out.

Quinn and Kenzie are in middle school or upper elementary (not entirely clear which), and Quinn’s more upset to leave her friends behind than Kenzie is. Gramma is a veterinarian who keeps an eye on the local herd of wild horses that inhabit the islands, so the girls are excited to go kayaking in the nearby waters and spot the horses – and a newborn foal.

So this graphic novel is about summer fun – and the pictures make you feel like you’re there. But there’s an undercurrent of what are the girls going to do if their parents split up?

This is a lovely story and a quick read – with horses!

niki-smith.com
scholastic.com

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Review of Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom, by Sangu Mandanna

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom

by Sangu Mandanna
read by Zenia Starr

Listening Library, 2021. 7 hours, 5 minutes.
Review written July 4, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.

I checked out this audiobook because of how much I love the author’s cozy fantasy novels for adults. It turned out to be a sweet fantasy for kids, in the mythology-is-actually-real genre.

In this case, the mythology in question is Indian mythology, and there’s a twist. Kiki Kallira, a girl who’s recently started having symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (Though it’s not named as such, and she hasn’t gotten a diagnosis yet, because she hasn’t told her mother how bad it is yet.), has been obsessively drawing a world in her sketch book where a heroic girl, based on her disreputable great-aunt, battles a major Indian demon, aided by a band of resourceful orphans. One day, this girl shows up in her bedroom battling a lesser demon.

It turns out that the major demon is real, and had been exiled to The Nowhere Place. He schemed to get back to our world by using his magic to make Kiki’s sketchbook world real – and use that to get out of The Nowhere Place. Now he plans to go from Kiki’s world eventually back to our world.

Now, the girl hero has escaped through a small tear between worlds, and takes Kiki back with her. Kiki needs to defeat the demon in her pocket universe in order to keep him from finding his way to our world. But how can a small, weak little girl with a brain that won’t behave defeat a demon?

And once in her world, Kiki befriends the band of orphans, who were already dear to her. Now that they are real, can she really bear to do something that would make that world stop existing, even though it will defeat the evil demon?

So there are nice undercurrents here, and some twists and turns in the quest. The author continues to display her fantasy-writing chops.

sangumandanna.com

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Review of Dream On, by Shannon Hale and Marcela Cespedes

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Dream On

written by Shannon Hale
illustrated by Marcela Cespedes
colors by Lark Pien

Roaring Brook Press, 2025. 236 pages.
Review written May 26, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I always love it when a children’s book features a big family. We kids from big families are underrepresented, because all those characters are hard to keep track of. This is a graphic novel about a middle school kid named Cassie who’s dealing with friendships and family relationships – so pretty much your classic middle school graphi novel. It reminds me very much of Shannon Hale’s autobiographical Real Friends series, because Cassie, too, is imaginative and not willing to give up pretend play as quickly as her friends are.

One of the features of this book is that early on, Cassie opens a letter that tells her she’s “already won” three fabulous prizes. So she keeps the mailer and thinks about what she’ll do with the prizes when she gets them. And she doesn’t order magazines – it says “No Purchase Necessary” – and doesn’t enclose any money, but she does put stickers for the magazines she likes in the spots on the order form.

The magazines start coming. What will her mother say when she finds out Cassie sent that in? That’s scarier than thinking about what she’ll say when they all get into their new car so they don’t have to go places in two shifts.

So at home, Cassie dreams about that – and finally getting attention from her mother. (The reader doesn’t have to try to keep track of the siblings in her family. There are a lot.) At school, there’ a new girl who’s coming between Cassie and her long-time best friend. And the new girl thinks Cassie’s favorite teacher is weird. Is she maybe right about that? It’s so hard to tell.

I like Cassie’s character because I was an imaginative kid, too – though I’d pretty much stopped admitting to it by middle school. But I also remember the fascination of those “YOU may HAVE ALREADY WON!!!” letters in the mail. My older siblings were quick to disillusion me, but I may have, well, ordered some magazines when I was a young adult. And daydreamed at least a little about what I’d do if I won. So Cassie’s predicament was easy to imagine.

This book came out in 2025, but our order was a casualty of Baker and Taylor going out of business, and it accidentally didn’t get reordered and the holds have piled up. But I’m happy it’s arrived just in time for summer reading, and the second book in the series, coming out in August.

shannonhale.com
mackids.com

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Review of Buffalo Dreamer, by Violet Duncan

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Historical, Starred Review 0

Buffalo Dreamer

by Violet Duncan
read by Ashley Callingbull

Listening Library, 2024. 2 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 National Book Award Finalist, Young People’s Literature
2026 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book, Middle Grades

Buffalo Dreamer is short and sweet and packs a lot of power.

12-year-old Summer and her family are traveling to Canada to the reservation where her mother grew up for their annual vacation. Summer’s looking forward to wonderful times, riding horses with her cousin and enjoying her grandparents and her extended family.

But when she crosses the border into Canada and nears the reservation, she starts having vivid dreams about a girl running away from a residential school. Meanwhile, modern equipment has been brought to the residential school where Summer’s grandfather went to school – and they have found bodies of kids buried there.

Could Summer’s dreams be showing her what really happened?

This book navigates the line between talking about horrific abuse in the past and expressing confident joy in the present – and the power of connection between the generations.

violetduncan.com

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Review of Orris and Timble: Star Stories, by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Carmen Mok

Animal Characters, Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Orris and Timble

Star Stories

by Kate DiCamillo
illustrated by Carmen Mok

Candlewick Press, 2026. 76 pages.
Review written April 22, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Kate DiCamillo and Carmen Mok’s beginning chapter book series about a rat and an owl who are friends just got even sweeter.

All the books are gentle, recapping the details of the friendship and thinking about action before it happens. All the books have Orris and Timble telling stories to each other in their nightly meetings.

In this one, Timble invites Orris to fly on his back. Orris isn’t even a little bit interested. But little by little, we see that gently change. Until finally, the saying on Orris’s treasured sardine tin again motivates him to action: Make the good and noble choice!!

It’s all so wonderfully done, taking the reader along on the emotional as well as the physical journey. And with simple language for a beginning reader, too!

katedicamillo.com

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Review of Halfway to Somewhere, by Jose Pimienta

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Halfway to Somewhere

by Jose Pimienta

RH Graphic, 2025. 250 pages.
Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
2026 Stonewall Award Winner, Children’s Literature

Halfway to Somewhere is about a nonbinary kid named Ave who moves with their mother and little brother from Mexicali to Lawrence, Kansas, where their mother is teaching at the university. Every night, they talk with their big sister, hoping she and their dad will come join them soon.

Ave isn’t happy to be in Kansas. They don’t like speaking English and sounding like a toddler. Their little brother makes a friend from the house across the street the very first day.

Ave liked hiking in Mexicali, so they start walking around Lawrence, learning the place with their feet. And once they start school, there are folks who try to be friendly.

It’s one of those adjusting to a new place and figuring out how you fit in books. The fact that Ave is nonbinary is refreshingly in the background and not a big problem in the book, though how their dad relates to them does contribute to some of their identity questions. I’ve always said that graphic novels are a good fit for the emotional highs and lows of middle school, and this book effectively uses pictures to tell most of the story.

josepimienta.com

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Review of Phoenix, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Phoenix

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2026. 162 pages.
Review written April 10, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Hooray! A new book from Kimberly Brubaker Bradley! And this one says it’s Book 1 of the Ride On series – so there will be more!

This book features Harper, a girl in middle school, whose life has just blown up. Harper’s dad cheated on her mother with Harper’s best friend Cat’s mother – and Harper found that out from gossip at school the morning after her parents told her they were getting divorced.

Harper and her mother decide to get out of town, so they move to a small house on the property of a barn and riding school. Cat was scared of horses, so Harper had always avoided them, too, out of solidarity. But one day a kill truck stops at the barn and abandons a dying horse in the yard. Harper becomes determined to save him. She names him Phoenix because he’s going to rise from the ashes.

But the adults aren’t so sure and keep warning Harper that it will be tough for him to make it. But Harper starts working around the barn, taking lessons, and learning about horses, determined to save her horse.

Meanwhile, she’s got new friends to make at the stables and at her new school. And sometime, she’s going to have to face her dad. And Cat.

This book is nice and short, but tells a good story in that time. Yes, we’re going to want to find out more in the next book of the series, but this was a fantastic way to meet Harper and her rescued horse. I learned plenty about riding and horses and even about how to treat an almost-starved horse. (Don’t let them eat all they want.) Horse-loving kids like I once was are going to be delighted with this series.

kimberlybrubakerbradleycom.wordpress.com

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