Beautiful.
Soft and warm and beautiful.



Thank you NetGalley and Levine Querido for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Well isn’t this just something I would really enjoy? A walky, talky, thinky book with simple, but often heartbreaking art. Wow. Part novel, part comic, and part collection of poetry, this is just really wonderful. I don’t want to spoil anything as this doesn’t come out in America for a while, I got an ARC from Netgally thank you very much, but suffice to say, this ends even better than I thought it could be. 4.5 stars.

this book reads with such grace. it’s a soft story, a soft color palette, lines both drawn and written that feel incomplete. the title is “pardalita” in reference to the girl that the main character, raquel, spends the majority of the novel enthralled by, the girl that gives her a chance to come to terms with herself. but interestingly enough, pardalita was much less of a character and much more of a symbol for what raquel is scared of and simultaneously desires: her queerness, which she yearns to understand.

there wasn’t a lot happening in this book, and it definitely wasn’t a romance. and yet, it felt like a glimpse into a life that isn’t mine, snippets of a 16 year old portuguese girl falling in love from afar. it’s quiet beauty left more to be had, and i do wish we got more of raquel’s personality and more interactions with pardalita, given her centralness to the story. however, the little we did see felt intentional.

thank you so much levine querido for providing my an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review! this soft and sweet slice-of-life graphic novel releases 4/18 in the US and you don’t want to miss it.

This is a sweet story with snippets of the mc life in high school and growing up. The illustrations are so beautiful, it felt like I was watching a movie. The book has some nice drawings of place and cities too. Beautiful graphic novel that swept me away even in such a short format.

This was… something else. There’s a lot of text compared to other graphic novels. Random snippets of the main character’s life. A bit of poetry. A bit of coming to terms with your queer identity. Interesting, but not a favourite.

This short and sweet comic mixes comic & novel by including pages that simply were text, which I found intriguing. The story is gripping from the first page, but I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed by the abrupt ending. Still, a very sweet comic, which I enjoyed reading.

Thank you NetGalley and Levine Querido for an Advanced Reader Copy!

I was super intrigued by this synopsis of this graphic novel! Once I got reading, I immediately fell in love with the illustrations. They breathed new life and elevated the written passages in the book. They almost had an air of magical realism, particularly in the scenes involving the theater and Pardalita. I would undoubtedly categorize this book as a slice-of-life story with coming-of-age elements. The various scenes were very cut and dry, and there was little to no flow between each other besides a loose sense of chronology when the protagonist Raquel wasn't going back in time and recounting memories of her childhood. I wasn't too bothered by this, but it did make the reading experience a bit choppy. The writing itself had elements of poetry, but sometimes I was wondering if that was intentional as a stylistic choice or a translation or formatting error. I did read this EARC on my Kindle, and there were a handful of typos and puzzling formatting quirks in the written passages, but that may be due to the platform I was reading this on.

Part of me appreciates the book for what it is-- a quick slice-of-life read with poetry elements-- but another part of me wishes this was fleshed out a bit more. I was curious to know more about Raquel's childhood and her future after meeting Pardalita and this new identity she's exploring! Nevertheless, I'm grateful for this little book and all the lovely illustrations! I will certainly be following Joana Estrela's future projects because I have fallen head-over-heels for her art style! I can also see some of my middle school students enjoying this read and possibly resonating with Raquel's story!

Pardalita is a short novel with illustration / graphic novel notes, by Joana Estrela. At least that's how I'm describing it, as it mixes graphic novel, illustration, prose poems and novel in the strict sense.

Joana Estrela is an award-winning portuguese author and illustrator, so I immediately recognized her on the NetGalley display. But I hadn't read Pardalita yet, which, in addition to being nominated for the "Best comic book by a Portuguese author", Amadora BD 2022, is recommended by the National Reading Plan.


Throughout the novela, Raquel (16 years old) tells how she met Pardalita, a little older and how, between her parents' divorce and the other pains of adolescence, the relationship between them evolves.


Other books by the author that I want to read: Mana and A Rainha do Norte.

"how far can you be from someone without them noticing you don't want any distance at all?"

pardalita is a slice-of-life graphic novel about raquel, a teenager living in a small town in portugal. it's a soft, quiet book about what it feels like to be a teenager beginning realising that the world is far bigger than you can cope with, all the while coming in terms with your own identity and feelings, and trying yo figure out what kind of person you want to become, stepping out of your bubble and into those of others.

reading it feels like flipping through a journal you've found buried deep in a drawer of your childhood home. it's intertwined with raquel learning irregular english verbs by heart. the illustration style strangely made me reminisce the old language learning books i had when i was learning english and german, so they felt like a fitting surrounding for the story.

this ended up being the perfect final read of 2022. after a year as insane as that one, what you need is something simple, something soft and quiet and human.

This is a beautiful, quiet book. The form surprised me a little - I expected a typical graphic novel but it's mashed up with pages of text and it works wonderfully.

The art style is minimalist, which isn't my usual thing but it works well with the story - it adds to its peacefulness and quietness.

While it's mostly a coming of age story and a sapphic romance, I loved that it didn't shy away from difficult topics, especially EU murdering migrants by organizing illegal pushbacks on tbe Mediterranean Sea.

What a cute book, the illustrations are wonderful. The discovery of first love, the beauty of friendship, the strange teenage years... but I would like to known more about Raquel and Pardalita, perhaps in the next volume.

Pardalita is such a soft, quiet book. It’s perfectly bingeable, but also asks to be savored. I really think “quiet” is the word that describes it best.

Pardalita tells the story of a sixteen year old Portuguese girl, Raquel, who sees another girl and falls in love. This book is a mixture of poetry, prose, and graphic novel addressed to Pardalita, that girl she fell in love with.

Not much happens in this novel. The girls barely speak, and it’s almost like a little glimpse into a small moment of Raquel’s life. We see Raquel with her first boyfriend, her close friends, and with Pardalita in the theatre troupe she joins.

It’s a new and different approach to a book, which I think parallels the journey Raquel undergoes. It’s nothing huge, nothing revolutionary (both the story and the romance).

This is a beautiful read, with queer undertones (minus the coming of age). If something light and, well, “quiet” sounds like your vibe, check this out!

This quiet story follows Raquel, a teenager, through a season of life in her small Portuguese town. Raquel is on the cusp of everything: of being catapulted out of high school and into whatever is beyond it, of moving beyond her small town where everyone knows everywhere, of figuring out who and what she wants to be. And then there's Pardalita, a girl a year or so older who captures Raquel's attention in ways Raquel can't quite bring herself to admit to.

My favorite thing about this is, far and away, the mixed use of art and prose here. Sometimes the book takes the shape of a graphic novel, with fairly simple, straightforward black-and-white drawings, but just as often it falls into a page or two of prose, or prose poetry, as Raquel ruminates on either the current world around her or little vignettes from childhood that influence how she thinks about the world now. The art's not my go-to style (for preference, I guess I lean toward something more lush), but it's clean in a way that makes me twitch to pick up a pen and try to imitate it (I can't draw worth beans, but sometimes, if a drawing is straightforward enough, I can make a reasonable facsimile—and if I could draw well enough to make comics in this style, I'd be over the moon).

I suspect this will be fairly hit or miss with readers: it's a quiet story, understated, without a lot of dramatics. I'd have loved to know a bit more about Pardalita and what Raquel sees in her, because to me she's sort of...anywoman? anygirl? And yet I know exactly what Raquel means when she can't help but want to be near Pardalita all the time, when it's almost a relief that Pardalita will be leaving for Lisbon in a few months, because proximity makes the pull that much stronger.

This is one of several graphic novels translated into English that I've read recently, and I'm loving the differences—sometimes just small things, like the shape of the buildings in the background, but also perhaps a difference in the way the story is put together compared to the bulk of the (American) graphic novels I've read. 3.5 stars and would happily read more.

A lovely story about first love. The drawings are quite beautiful.
Really nice to see portuguese good work.

First of all, I am really happy I read this.
It's amazing to see portuguese talent.

I really liked the illustrations !

Loved the vibe and tone of this book. However, I don't think it is very memorable! 🙃

“I searched in darkness, but every time I thought I found my center, it moved away. Have I always been this scattered?” - Raquel

This graphic novel was such a delight to read! It felt inspiring and nostalgic, especially as it took me back to my own teenage years in a similar setting.
The novel follows Raquel, a sixteen year old who lives is a small town and who is trying to find herself and her sexuality. Raquel meets Pardalita, a senior at her school and an artist and they connect during a theatre play.

It is a beautiful story of discovery of not only sexuality but also of a first love.

Some reviews might say that the writing is something different on this one, however as a portuguese person, Joana’s writing really sounded poetic and reminded me of the love I have for writing. It is a unique style which I absolutely adore.

The illustrations are beautiful and poignant and they remind me of my own hometown, which it might be why I connected so much with the book.
This graphic novel has a mix of art mediums with prose, poetry and illustrations which makes it a delightful reading.

The one thing I would say that didn’t make this book a 5 stars from me, is that the translation at times felt off and didn’t connect well. It is possible this is something that someone who doesn’t know Portuguese wouldn’t notice though.

Truly recommend this book as a short and joyful read. And hope we get to know more of Raquel in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a honest review ✨

I quite liked some of the imagery and prose throughout the novel, however overall it just didn’t have as much of an impact as I thought it would. The story was just too short for me to connect to any of the characters and did not allow enough time to focus on the issues it was trying to discuss.

Overall it was an enjoyable read, but ultimately a forgettable one.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

thank you net galley for the advanced copy!

i loved this graphic novel so much! it felt like such an intimate look into raquels' life and heart. at first i wasn't sure what to think about the full-text pages but i grew to love them and thought the way they were sprinkled in was artful amongst the beautiful, minimal illustrations. i related a lot to raquel - those early feelings of infatuation, especially for the same sex, and especially related to her hunger for representation. loved the ending, so precious and left me wanting MORE - what happens with pardalita!?! i would def recommend this graphic novel, i think it's a soft & tender ode to identity, belonging & self-discovery.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Pardalita by Joana Estrela, translated by Lyn Miller Lachman, was such a delightfully atmospheric read. This graphic novel follows Raquel, a sixteen year-old girl living in a small town in Portugal that falls completely entranced with a girl: Pardalita. Raquel must now deal with her parents divorce, her friends endeavors and her possibly there feelings for this girl—whatever they might mean. There's not that much that happens in this graphic novel but it all seems to carry on the feeling of being a lost teenager. The illustrations are quite simplistic but oh-so-beautiful and the writing manages to convey so much poetically in very little words.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this book, I promise you won't be disappointed.

A graphic novel about being in love for the first time. Fresh and funny, it speaks of queer love in a subtle and relatable way!