A fun graphic novel that manages to convey the feeling of virtual reality. Addie has to spend the summer away from home because her father is working on his VR research. She makes new friends and also comes to terms with some difficult feelings surrounding her mother.

The real world is a crazy place. Things that make sense one day don’t make sense the next. Addie had her whole life flipped upside down with one life altering day. Trying to process what happened can be extremely difficult. Having to move across country to support your dad’s job over the summer doesn’t help. Yet her father is working with an amazing group of kids to develop some amazing virtual reality programs. Can one of them help Addie see things in a different manor and accept what happened in the past?
I think this book is beautiful. Processing things when you’re a teen can be extremely difficult, and having someone show that different methodology can be very effective in helping someone process a trauma is amazing. Not everything has to be old school. There is so much amazing technology and while a lot of people see it as being addictive, it is all in how we use it. It can allow for so many amazing breakthroughs and perspectives that we previously had not explored or thought of before. Facing our trauma is hard enough, facing it in a way that we feel safe is just so important, be it through technology or another way. Thank you for taking the time to show how someone might go through the process.
Thank you so much to Random House Children’s and Netgalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

This was a very sweet graphic novel that will appeal to fans of Telgemeier, Jamieson, and Hale. The full color format and the way it tackles series issues is very appealing and I look forward to recommending this book when it comes out. Wendy Mass once again proves that she is a children's book powerhouse.

One word: WOW! This book was such a fascinating blend of subjects, all woven together beautifully. I loved the use of VR, especially because it was shown in such a unique way. The college kids developing various uses for VR, and then the protagonist and her friend experiencing VR from those perspectives, rather than "just" gaming, was really interesting. I also deeply appreciated the subtlety with which the mom's addiction was handled. Add in moon trees and tortoises, friendship issues and parent relationships....all in all, this book was a wonderful read, and I can't wait to get it in the hands of patrons!

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for sending and allowing me to read this book.
Took me a while to actually read this but I'm so glad I got to it this month. This is an amazing book and I'm hoping my library gets it in physical form when it's published so I can reread it.

Solid story with a vivid graphics that are sure to capture any kids attention!

As an adult, I really appreciate raising awareness about secondary grief, meaning the loss of things associated with the loss of a person, but not the loss of the person themselves. Mateo never met his brother. So while he can't miss Emillo in a convention sense, he can miss the experiences he should have had with an older brother. Addie's mother is still alive, but not in her life. She's lost the image of her mother that she had, her mother is missing out on experiences in their lives, etc. The book also touches on how we heal. Healing isn't instant, and it does take work. Honestly, I was very impressed at how mature this book is; these are not easy concepts and this book served as a lovely and gentle introduction.

Can escaping the real world help Addie deal with her family issues?
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Addie’s family has been turned upside with the absence of her mother. When her and her father have to temporarily move for his new job across the country, Addie only wants to keep to herself. When her new neighbor, Mateo, wants to be friends, Addie isn’t quite ready. Together they end up getting involved in Addie’s father’s virtual reality project and it leads Addie to learn what empathy is and how to help others, as well as deal with her own feelings.
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@wendy_mass and Gabi Mendez have created a beautiful MG graphic novel that deals with important issues, as well as teaches about various topics such as tortoises, space and virtual reality. If you go to the author’s website you can even try some VR images from the book I loved how everything was dealt with empathy, understanding, compassion and kindness in this novel. This title releases this on May 2!

CW: opioid addiction, prison, hospitalization, cancer, parental abandonment, death of a sibling (recounted)

Wonderful and thoughtful. Addie’s has had a rough year. Her family life use to be perfect before her mother had an accident. Now Addie is going with her dad for his summer job at a university where he is working on projects involving virtual reality. Living across the hall is Mateo whose mom is also a professor. Addie is still on her own a lot. Mateo tries to include her in his volunteering and pay it forward projects but Addie is interested in her dads work. the students he mentors allow her to try their games and a projects to help develop empathy. Addie invites Mateo to join her and together they work on an VR project of their own.

There is so much to love in this story. I enjoyed learning about moon trees and an old tortoise. I like the positive uses for VR beyond game playing. I love how sweetly the book covers sensitive topics including death, separation from a parent and opioid addiction. The use of VR in the book is great because of the graphic novel format. It lets you see how the technology can work instead of imagining from reading a traditional book.

I was genuinely moved by the story and the illustrations. This can easily be enjoyed by upper elementary grades and middle schoolers. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s, Random House Graphic for the temporary ARC in exchange for a review.

Beautifully written graphic novel!! Lo and Behold really focuses on friendship, relationships, and the positive effects of technology. I only wish that it was longer!!!

An absolutely stunning graphic novel for middle schoolers and beyond. This book addresses so many issues, like losing a sibling, parents with addition/incarceration, and adjusting to a new place, but the main focus is the power of virtual reality. Addie is struggling with her family situation, but finds peace when getting lost within VR worlds. She quickly becomes addicted to VR, but eventually learns she can use this powerful tool to make the world a better place. It's well done and a fabulous read!

A fascinating graphic novel about a girl and a friend using VR to help others; helps them find closure with their own secrets. Engaging, illuminating.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand the relationships were well written and interactions believable and heartwarming. On the other hand, however, I didn't really grow to like the characters that much and the story itself didn't flow well for me. It is a graphic novel and that worked well for the story. I enjoyed the VR elements of the book and especially how the author integrated them into the plot. Overall, it was interesting and kept me entertained.

Addie's father works with virtual reality at the university level, so when he is offered a summer job at Spring Haven University, the two travel there. They live in an apartment across the hall from Professor Vargas' family, which includes Mateo, who is Addie's age. Addie's mother is not in the picture, having badly injured her leg and struggled with recuperation. We are not told exactly where she is now, but are given frequent hints that she is alive but not able to be with her family, and it's clear that some consequences of opioid addiction are involved. Addie is interested in tortoises (she was named after one), space, and also in "moon seeds" and the resultant trees that were planted in 1976 after the seeds came back from space. She suspects that one such tree is on campus and is excited about that. She is NOT excited about her dad's VR project, that takes him away from home and leaves her to her own devices for long periods of time, until she tries one of the programs. There are several students and professors working on grants for various kinds of VR experiences, but Addie really likes one that makes her feel like she is not living HER life. Her father has a VR headset at the apartment, and she spends a lot of time in the virtual world, even blowing off Mateo to play instead of hanging out with him. Eventually, she sees that this is not a great plan, and follows Mateo to the hospital to apologize. She has avoided hospitals because of her mom, but realizes that Mateo had a brother who is no longer around, which is why he volunteers. Addie steps in to help kids who don't want to go to chemo, and she and Mateo realize that havin VR available to them might help them deal with the long and boring treatments. She also makes some headway on hunting down the moon tree, gets a surprise involved with that, and makes some peace with her mother's situation. The summer is relatively short, but gives her some lasting connections.
Strengths: I appreciated that while Addie wasn't super excited to move for the summer, she embraced the experience and didn't complain. Her hard working father is realistically portrayed; I think anything at the university level means a lot of time spent away from family. The VR information was interesting, and I liked that it was used for a lot of social situations, like creating empathy or helping children undergo chemotherapy. Mateo and Addie's friendship evolves in a realistic way. Addie's mother's opioid addiction is also very realistic. The illustration style is quite nice and will appeal to graphic novel fans.
Weaknesses: I wish that the addiction had been explained right away instead of being introduced in such a teasing way.
What I really think: Graphic novels really seem to hit their sweet spot when describing trauma, and this has both Mateo's brother's death as well as the issues with Addie's mother, so will go over well with fans of Telgemeier, Libenson, and Scrivan's work. There is enoug story here that it would have made an excellent novel, which I would have preferred, but I will still purchase this for my library.

Wendy Mass is such an amazing author! I saw her at a book festival a few years ago when she said she was working on a graphic novel. It was great to see this character struggle without her mom and find herself in a new situation where she eventually learned that change is good. Wendy Mass always does a great job with friendship and family issues.

This has lovely artwork and coloring, and a timely message of connection with VR. There are good parts in here and it is a quick, enjoyable read overall, but some of the more emotional elements seemed lacking. It was clear that the excitement for VR technology - well told in the final author's note - overwhelmed the actual characters here. Nonetheless, picking up for my classroom and expect it to be a popular book.

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley.)

Addie's dad is a futurist; her mom gave tours at the zoo. They met in front of a giant tortoise enclosure, so it was only natural that she be named after one: Adwaitya, the longest-lived tortoise at 250 years old. Her home was filled with magic (read: science) and curiosity and brimming with possibilities. That is, until her mom broke her leg in a bike accident and subsequently became addicted to painkillers.

With her mom out of the picture, Addie's dad drags her thousands of miles away from home for his summer job: mentoring a group of graduate students whose projects focus on his area of expertise, augmented reality. Sure, Springhaven University might look like a boring old college campus, but strap on a VR headset and it's a colorful dreamland of wizardry and wonder, with VR geocaching games, art installations, workout programs disguised as ghostbusting challenges, even a project meant to foster empathy.

Try as she might to disengage from the world, Addie is drawn into her father's work - with a little nudge from Mateo, a neighbor boy and fellow geek who also happens to be a habitual do-gooder. Together, they merge his volunteerism at the local hospital with "The Gang's" technology to help kids (and adults) who are struggling like they are.

LO & BEHOLD is such a sweet, wholesome, life-affirming story - sorely needed after the last few years. The Breckers are such a delightfully nerdy family, with their affinity for space exploration, nonhuman animals (I love that, in an attempt to cheer her up, Addie's dad takes her to see the pups at an animal shelter and NOT a pet store), and technology (particularly the ways it can be used for good). Dad is a sweetheart, and Mass and Mendez handle mom's addiction with sensitivity and compassion (even if the ending is maybe unrealistically happy). The Gang is likewise an entertaining bunch, and I love Surekha's empathy project - which, like the moon seeds, is rooted in reality.

Even though LO & BEHOLD is a middle grade graphic novel, I'd recommend it to teens and adults who need something soft and cozy to soothe the soul.

This book by Wendy Mass is an absolute gem. Addie and her dad are going away for a few weeks for a new job, and she is not thrilled. She doesn't care about the virtual reality project he is working on, she doesn't want any new friends, and she really does not want to talk about her mom. Mateo, a kid who lives across the hall in their new building, is super friendly and invites her along to help with his summer project. Slowly, the two become friends and when they help Addie's dad's students test their projects, they are inspired to find a way to help others.

Welcome Back!

This past week I tried something new! I tried listening to two different audiobooks throughout the week! In between these audio books, I would read a lot of manga or graphic novels. I am excited to talk more about this experiment but for now, I want to talk about the first graphic novel I read during that time! I decided to head to my Netgalley and pick up an E-ARC of Lo and Behold (many thanks to the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinions). So without further ado, let’s talk about this awesome upcoming graphic novel!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Addie’s family was completely rocked not all that long ago but now Addie is going to have even more changes when her father gets a temporary job far from home at a university. Addie’s father loves Virtual Reality and works with all sorts of technology for his job. Before everything happened, Addie, her mom and dad all lived in one house and they were a big happy family, but since the accident everything is different. Now Addie is leaving her home to go with her dad to live at this university. She knows it’s not forever but it will definitely feel like a long time. However, once they are there things are much different than Addie imagined. There is another kid who lives across the hall and the projects her dad helps to work on are actually really amazing. Shortly after arriving and making friends with the kid across the hall, Addie gets wrapped up in playing some of her father’s students’ new VR games. But this kind of spoils her friendship in some ways because it feels like she is hiding all her time in the VR world. But that all changes one day when Addie and her new friend have the most amazing VR idea and they recruit the help of her father’s students to make it happen!

This graphic novel was absolutely amazing. Addie’s VR project really stuck with me and was an amazing idea. This particular topic (the one they tackle with the VR project), is super near and dear to my own heart and I can absolutely imagine how this would change and help so many people (I wonder if anyone has done anything like this project in real life)? Outside of that aspect, I loved Addie, her father, and all the other characters. I was really not expecting the twist with Addie and her mother but it honestly made me so happy that it was not too late for things to change. I also really loved the use of color and the art style in this graphic novel. I will absolutely be picking up a copy when it comes out in May! I can not wait to have this one on my shelves!

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars (Deserves many more)!

***Thank you so much to the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

I enjoyed this children's graphic novel. The art style was really nice and expressive. The story was good as well. I like that this included subjects that aren't as prevalent in children's fiction. I think the VR component of the story will have a lot of appeal for many readers. Readers that enjoy realistic fiction graphic novels such as Roller Girl, Real Friends, and Telgemeier's books will likely enjoy this one, especially those that are interested in gaming and tech.

Yeah, the first thing I thought when I saw this book was about virtual reality was, no. But I like graphic novels, especially middle grade ones, so I thought I would give it a chance. I am so glad I did. Because this is not about virtual reality, so much, as about what benefits there are to having it.


Addie has had something happen to her mother, at the start of the book. We don’t learn what it is that happened, until nearly the end. All we know is that she isn’t around anymore, but she is still alive. Apparently she has also written letters to Addie, who doesn’t want to read them.


Her father is a professor, who gets a summer job helping college students come up with some uses for their virtual reality programs. Addie doesn’t want to help them. She doesn’t want to make friends. She doesn’t want to do anything. But Mateo, who is her age, and the college students, make her see the uses for the VR sets.

What I love is that this story builds on you. The mystery of the mother. The mystery of Mateo and his brother, that she never sees. And the people that Addie meets in the virtual reality programs.

Sweet. Sad. Well written. Addie sees that the programs are a good distraction, and can bring people out. With a holocaust survivor, she shows him his old homeland. Though the house he grew up in is gone, he recognizes the mountains. With a young boy, she lets him use her headset to distract him while he is getting chemo.

It is all quite touching, and I chewed it up.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>