Zoe's Blog

  Life of Melody by Mari Costa is an adorable fantasy graphic novel. You might be able to tell thats my favorite genre by now. I read this book last weekend and I loved it. It is definitly a new favorite. I like the drawings a lot, and the story and characters feel complete. It had a good amount of seriousness mixed into the lighthearted parts. I liked that it was fantasy, but not about a big quest or a magic school.  Razzmatazz, a fairy, and Bon, a magical beast, both find a human baby in the woods and want to raise her themselves. When they can't agree on who should take care of her, they reluctantly raise her together. They move into a human town and disguise themselves to fit in. But, Razzmatazz has a secret that could change everything. Similar Books: Princess Princess Ever After by Kay O' Neill Pumpkin Heads by Faith Erin Hicks The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Aquicorn Cove by Kay O'Neill is a lighthearted fantasy graphic novel. It has a similar vibe to their other books, Princess Princess Ever After and The Tea Dragon Society. The drawings are very adorable. I enjoyed this book a lot. Lana is visiting her Aunt Mae to help clean their seaside village up after a storm. She finds a baby aquicorn, a magical sea creature, on the beach. Lana visits an underwater world where the aquicorns live, and finds out how the town is affecting the coral reef. Lana must help her aunt realize the damage they are doing, and reconnect with the aquicorns. Similar books: Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen The Girl From the Sea by Molly Ostertag The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O'Neill

  The Legend of Brightblade is a fantasy graphic novel by Ethan M. Aldridge. It is the same author as Estranged, his more popular graphic novel series. I just read this book the past few days, so I have it fresh in my mind. The art is beautiful, and different from a lot of graphic novels because it is watercolor. If you like fantasy, but want a change in the type of magic, you will like this book. It is a stand alone book. Prince Alto is a bard who wishes to help the world with magic and go on epic adventures. His mother turned to other methods of helping the world long ago, but her heroic legend still stands. She wants a different life for Alto. When Alto is not allowed to do what he wants, he sneaks out and joins two other young bards. Together, can they be the heroes the world still needs? Similar books: Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag Five Worlds by Alexis Siegel and Mark Siegel Estranged by Ethan M. Aldridge I included the map because it is a very cool one and does not reveal...

  Anda is a teenage girl who loves to play Coarsegold, an online multyplayer game, in her freetime. But, things become a lot more complicated when Anda gets involved with illegal gold mining, and she realizes the things you do in the game affect people in real life too.  In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang is a graphic novel. I really love the drawings in it. It has some interesting ideas about how the game is different for certain people, and about real money vs. game money. The story switches back and forth between the game world and the real world, so you can see how Anda acts differently in Coarsegold than she does normaly. Similar books:  Nimona by ND Stevenson Stargazing by Jen Wang The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

  This skirt is so quick to make, now I want to make one with every color. It feels like the perfect skirt for spring. It is also easy to adjust. The length is one of the most obvious, but you could also add another layer, details like bows or buttons, or even straps like overalls. When you make doll clothes, try the clothes on the doll throughout the proccess to make sure everything still fits. It is easier to change when your still at that step! I used a sewing machine for most of the skirt, but there were a few places I hand sewed.  Start by cutting your peices from fabric. You need one rectangle that's five inches by one and a half inches for the waistband. You need another rectangle for the skirt that is four inches by eleven inches. The four inch side can be lengthened or shortened to change the length of the skirt. I made my skirt with the same fabric for both peices, but you could do a different color for one. Fold the waistband in half and iron it. Hem one side of the...

  Invisible Emmie by Terri Libenson is a graphic novel about Emmie, a regular girl going through middle school. The book is part of a series where each book is about a different character's experience at the same middle school. I think it is really interesting to see how the different characters' stories overlap and how their perspectives are different. You don't have to read the rest of the series for one book to make sense, but I think reading the rest of the series adds a lot to the individual stories. Some chapters of the book are not in the usual graphic novel format, but they still have pictures are are more like a comic than a novel.  Emmie and Katie are complete opposites. Katie is outgoing, confident, and popular. Emmie is shy, quiet, and... invisible. But after one embarrasing note, Emmie ends up in the spotlight, and in a fight with her best friend, Brianna. At the same time, Katie's life is changing to. Similar books: Making Friends by Kristen Gudsnuk Drama ...

  The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks is one of my favorite books. It is a series of three graphic novels. The photo above is the first book. I love the art, especially the backrounds which are very detailed. The setting feels very complete and developed. There are lots of characters, and the character development happens at the right speed. Different nations are always conqering the city. No one can keep it for long, but currently the Dao have control. Kaidu is a kid from the Dao nation who is visiting the city for the first time. He becomes friends with a girl who is native to the city, Rat. They work together to stop the unending war. Similar books: NewsPrints by Ru Xu Compass South by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock

  Beetle and the Hollowbones is a fantasy graphic novel by Aliza Layne. It is one of my favorite books and I highly recomend it. Today I am going to talk about how awesome this book is. Beetle is a teenage goblin who is learning magic. She loves to hang out at the mall with her friend Blob Ghost in her free time. Then, things start to get confusing when Beetle's childhood friend, Kat, comes back to town. The mall is going to be torn down, Blob Ghost can't leave, and to make matters worse, the one behind it is Kat's aunt. Beetle and Kat must work to understand their feelings about sorcery and eachother, all while saving Blob Ghost. This graphic novel is definitley fantasy, although it also has modern day technology mixed into the world. It has lots of LGBTQ+ characters. I like the drawings a lot and there is a variety of how characters look. Here are some similar books. They can help you get an idea of what this one is like, or if you read this book and enjoy it, you can rea...

  I started this post a really long time ago, but then my photos weren't uploading so I stopped working on it, and never came back. I designed these cute, little fuse bead characters. They remind me a lot of video game characters, probably because they are pixel art. The idea is that you can make a character that looks like yourself or a specific person. I am not really sure what you do with it, maybe just use it as a decoration or a keychain. The design is very customizable, so add and change things to feel more like your own character. Change the colors to create different people. I made three different designs to choose from, though they are all very similar. The photographs are kind of dark, sorry about that. Design 1: Design 2: Design 3:

  These earrings are super fun to make. Pony beads come in lots of colors, are lightweight, and easy to get, so they are a very good material to use. These earrings are very easy and quick once you get the hang of it, and they are pretty quick to learn. A lot of people like to make keychains like this, but I thought it would be fun to make earrings. Supplies: pony beads elastic scissors jump rings earring hooks pliers Start by cutting a peice of elastic. Fold in half and stick it through a jump ring. Take the two ends and pull them through the loop. The elastic should be secured to the jump ring with two ends sticking off like in the photo below. Get two beads that are the first color you want on the earring. Put them on one of the strings. Put the other elastic string through the beads in the opposite direction. Pull both strings so the beads are at the top by the jump ring. Repeat with another color. Keep adding more colors on until your earrings have all the colors or are the le...

  Tiny headphones are super adorable, and a nice addition to a lot of outfits. You can easily change the color and add different details. I used a glue stick for everything in this project. Start by tracing four circles onto cardboard or thick paper, then cut out. Color them. I colored them black because that is the color my headphones are. You could do black or gray, or a bolder. Make sure you color the sides too. Cut out a long, skinny rectangle from your cardboard or paper. It should go around your dolls head and over their ears. Bend it around so it is more flexable and curves around the head better. Cut strip of colored paper wider than the cardboard. Glue the cardboard on like this. Cut little peices out of the paper like this. Then fold them over and glue. Repead on the other side. Now when you flip it over it looks neat and all black (or whatever color you chose.) Now cover the back of two of your circles in glue. Sandwitch the end of your strip between the two circles....