Looking for a Jumbie by Tracey Baptiste, Illustrated by Amber Ren

5 stars An impressive picture book debut from Tracey Baptiste, author of The Jumbies series, this gorgeous book weaves an enchanting tale of a moonlit stroll to find some jumbies. Great for those already familiar with jumbies as well as those experiencing them for the first time. Featuring a Douen, a Lagahoo, Mama D’Leau, and many more,…

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The Black Mage by Daniel Barnes, Artwork by D. J. Kirkland

2 stars This is a tricky one to rate. It tells the story of Tom Token being accepted as the first black student at a historically white mage school, St. Ivory Academy. I personally enjoyed the word play involved. Tom has a crow named Jim and the higher-ups in the school like Headmaster Lynch walk…

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Beautifully Me by Nabela Noor, Illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

5 stars I fell in love with this book the moment I saw it. The colors, the designs, the characters, the message. It is just what we needed in the world. The message of body positivity and loving yourself is not necessarily new to children’s literature, but I’ve need seen it presented in a way…

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Some Enchanted Evening (Moonstruck Volume 2) by Grace Ellis

2 stars Pretty disappointed with the second volume of this series. While there were some pacing issues that I was able to get past in the first because of the amazing universe created and the awesome characters, this one just didn’t live up to the standard previously set. For starters, I’m not sure why the…

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Black Women in Science by Kimberly Brown Pellum

5 stars An excellent read filled with remarkable women. Engaging, inspiring, and beautiful in its presentation. One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the range of sciences included. Aviation, nutrition, psychology, entomology, neurosurgery, and engineering are just a few of the many types of STEM fields discussed in this book. It was also…

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The Tea Dragon Tapestry (Tea Dragon #3) by Kay O’Neill

5 stars Another gorgeous book in the Tea Dragon series. I cannot get enough of this world. The characters could just sit with their tea dragons, talking to each other and sipping tea and I would be here for it 100%. As always, O’Neill’s artwork is fantastic. Each page is gorgeous and relaxed. Beautiful colors,…

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Magic to Brew (Moonstruck Vol. 1) by Grace Ellis

4 stars This graphic novel opens with such a great start. From the opening spread of the cafĂ©, I was immediately drawn in. There’s so much detail and things going in, I instantly wanted to get to know the characters and how they all connected with one another. As the characters were introduced, I fell…

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Snapdragon by Kat Leyh

5 stars What an amazing, unique, unexpected, splendid book. This was jaw-droppingly good and I did not want to put it down. I’ll admit, as an animal-lover I was a little squeamish when first introduced to the roadkill witch. But Leyh does such an amazing job of creating characters that you will gladly welcome into…

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Rise of the Jumbies (The Jumbies #2) by Tracey Baptiste

3 stars A good follow up to the first book. This one starts off right where the last one ended. I was glad to see new characters and situations in this one. It is a completely new adventure while continuing elements and themes found in the previous book. While there are some explanations of what…

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The Jumbies (The Jumbies #1) by Tracey Baptiste

4 stars An interesting read filled with magic, adventure, and elements of Haitian folklore. As Baptiste points out in her Author’s note, in comparison to European fairy tales, there are not a lot of Haitian folklore and jumbie fairy tales in mainstream literature. It’s great to see this series start to fill that gap. The…

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