Quick Summary: A light bright buddies romp

My Review: Melowy, Vol. 1: The Test of Magic was created by Danielle Star, written by Cortney Powell, and illustrated by Ryan Jampole. It is a comic/graphic novel series that features a very special group Melowy friends.

About the Book: Far away, beyond the stars, a magical realm exists. In this harmonious place, a school exists.Its purpose is to educate and train Melowies. Each Melowy has her own special look, her own special skills, and her own special test. Alas, something is afoot. Everything is not as harmonious as it should be. By the volumes end, readers get a glimpse of what's to come.

My Final Say: What a wonderful new world! This delightful adventure, so akin to My Little Ponies, is the beginning of a series set to teach young readers about individuality, identity, friendship, and love. I saw elements from many familiar fantasy fiction stories that I know and adore. Still, I found this book to be enchanting. I think it will appeal to many younglings.

Rating: 3.75/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: Y
Series: Yes
Status: ES to lower MS (ages 8-12)
Level: G

Appreciation is extended to the author, to the publisher (Papercutz), and to NetGalley for granting access to this title in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity.

I requested this book initially based on the cover artwork- it's bright and pretty and it looked like it would be very appealing to my daughter (age 6). This is the first volume in a series about the Melowy- pegasus like beings that attend a special school to develop magic powers. I think this was a good first entry- it introduces you to the main characters and takes them through an initial adventure while setting up some plot seeds for the future volumes. My only criticism of this would be the obvious similarities to My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. The power of friendship is a big deal in this volume, and you can see some parallels between these characters and the ponies. Also, I was a bit disappointed in the glossing over of how the characters met and became friends. There's just a brief mention and a few drawings, but that's it. I wonder if maybe more information will come out in later volumes as a flashback? Either way, I think this was a very cute graphic novel that a lot of little girls will enjoy.

To begin, this story intrigued me as a fan of My Little Pony. Truth be told, this is literally a rip off of MLP. The characters look exactly like the MLP characters. Each Melowy has a "unique symbol" on their wings just like cutie marks on the buttocks. Oh, and the Present of Friendship!

This is still an entertaining comic if your child loves MLP. This is right up their alley.

I feel like this was such a choppy first comic. The author just rushes through the introduction of the characters and everything about the 'main character' was explained in like three pages. There was so much promise there and we just sailed on over. Drawing out the plot would have introduced the characters more and made us fall for them rather than just throwing us into their world.

I did enjoy each character's little trail they had to overcome so that was very intriguing. One day we will see more of this world and hopefully in show form.