Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my e-ARC of Kira and the (Maybe) Space Princess!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
🦄 ever wondered what a cat mixed with a unicorn would look like
🪄 love magical stories
✍🏻 enjoy graphic novels
🏫 found middle school difficult

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

There's nothing cooler than Magical Girls - pretty superheroes fighting villains with the power of friendship and glitter? What could be better than that! This year in middle school, Kira is going to be cool and popular and have SO many friends because she’s going to be a MAGICAL GIRL! ...Or not.

Frustrated beyond belief, Kira makes a wish on a shooting star that her life will change – and when Catacorn, a cat-unicorn-space-princess, crashes into Kira's backyard, it seems her wish has come true…kinda…maybe… Oh no. Is Kira's dream of being a Magical Girl really possible...or is Catacorn not really what she promises to be?

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

This was a super cute graphic novel about a girl who doesn’t fit in with others. She wants to be a somebody and be admired like her self-made arch nemesis, Tulip. She was a really relatable character for me, as I didn’t fit in well with my peers either during my school years. Wanting the approval of others is completely normal for younger kids, and as an adult, I can say that it’s easier to be okay with not getting that. But what Kira experienced and wanted was 100% valid. I loved her relationship with Catacorn (how cute is she?) and how they have their ups and downs but eventually work through it all. I also really enjoyed the style of the book and characters. I’m excited to see what comes next in book 2!

I grew up loving Magic Girls. I love this story inspired by the most amazing magic girls of Asian manga and anime pop culture. The author is creative and energetic, combining so many of my favorite elements: the magical accessories, the transformations, the fact they are schoolgirls and magical fighters, the evolution of characters and access to new powers, fabulous powers, the clothes, the back stories involving space, moon and royal family, let's not forget Catcorn is hilarious. The expressions are fantastic, I can't forget how Sailor Moon just made me laugh with her expressions so much, and in each energetic page of this novel, I could feel the energy and I could listen to them speaking loud, shouting, speaking fast, laughing. I like the sketchy style of the author and how it works so well with the story. Yet, it's very relatable, not fitting in, being jealous of the popular girls, and thinking that all the good things happen to other people, but in the end, we just have to find our voice, where we belong, and our people. It's the power of friendship. I want to join them in Neo-Earth where all characters are unique and everyone is so diverse. I want wings, tails, and a familiar that looks like a cute Pokemon.
Loved this hilarious story. It's one of those that I collect to re-read when I'm overwhelmed and need to laugh and feel good again. Hope to see more adventures.
Thank you Publisher and Netgalley for the arc.

I struggled to read this one because it’s different from the other graphic novels I’ve read. I think that the audience the author is aiming for might be around 9-10 years old. For someone who just started to read and can withstand the attention span of 15-20 minutes per sitting, it might be suitable for those kind of children. Anyone older might find this book too immature since it seems this book involves a lot of imagination… even after reading a good 75% of the book, I still don’t quite understand the plot… because all it seems to me is the main character wanting to be someone special and works way too hard to impress and seeks attention from all the students in her school? I’m not sure if the author should be teaching that to kids… that finding favor in the eyes of your classmates should be an ideal thing to do…

I very much enjoy the artwork. I think it is unique in that it almost seems like a child drew this for fun, with the colorful panels and the sparkles in the character’s eyes, which is appealing for young children because it seems almost reliable. But unfortunately, I feel like the storytelling definitely needs a lot more work. Perhaps if the author can explain more about this mysterious magic girl thing, then this book may be more easier to understand. There just seems to be a lot of potholes that I just eventually lost interest in trying to understand what’s going on.

Anyways thank you to NetGallery for providing me a digital copy in advance for review!

This will appeal to a certain subset of late elementary schoolers but lacks much appeal for other audiences. The characters are....fine...but both they and the plot lack much to set it apart.

Such a sweet story- shared with my 11 and 9 year olds and they loved it as well!

My son. 5th grade resonated with the material more but both the kids and myself loved the story, friends, plot, writing, and graphic illustrations!

So part of the books downloaded weird like the text was over lapped a lot.
But that was only a small portion.
This wasn’t my favorite magical girl story. It was giving fairly odd parents randomness. It seemed to try to come off quirky but didn’t exactly work. Towards the end I think it got better because the main character wasn’t so awkward. I get the point is she’s a loner awkward girl but there is a level of like awkward that you can reach where it isn’t relatable. I do enjoy that she came into her own towards the end. And her and the caticorn kept being friends but this magic story isn’t as good as other ones I’ve read in the last year.

I think this story has a particular niche that will find it attractive and I definitely am not part of that niche. I didn't love the storyline - I found it hard to follow along with what was happening throughout the story. The characters were not super kind to one another and it was hard to find redeeming qualities in many of them. The story felt a little convoluted and like it was going in several different directions at once. That being said, the art was really cute and definitely fit into the magical girl genre. Again, while this book was not for me, I do think that there is a group that will find it really interesting to read and enjoy the storyline a lot.

Definitely a cute middle grade graphic novel. Kira and Catacorn are a little… high energy and can be a little cringe, but it’s junior high and everything is powered by cutie sparkle friendship energy. First in a series and I’m definitely ready for the next

I want to start by saying I am obsessed with cats and unicorns so you’d think a book about a catacorn would be written just for me! I thought this would be an instant favorite for me. I was wrong. Now, I do love the art. The illustrations were adorable! Very “kawaii”. The story, however, wasn’t my thing. I don’t really agree with the message it’s sending out to kids. The main character is kind of a jerk. She’s mean to the catacorn for no reason and is only in 7th grade and already has a really bad “pick me, I’m not like other girls” complex. I wouldn’t want my own middle school daughter to read this book. It’s not a good lesson on how to treat your friends. I get that the end has a redemption and a resolution of a sort, but it doesn’t make up for how badly the main character treated the catacorn during most of the story. I don’t blame her for not liking the popular kids or not wanting to hang out with the tulip girl she’s jealous of, but come on… catacorn was your pal, why’d you do her like that? I did feel bad for Kira, I felt bad for everything she went through. I just didn’t like her attitude and how she handled everything. Catacorn isn’t innocent either. She betrayed Kira by hanging out with tulip and all that, but still. Admitting you’re a bad friend doesn’t make you not one. Kira even gaslights the catacorn at some point and doesn’t believe her when she’s telling her the truth. Weirdly, I think I liked tulip the most.

I liked the idea behind the story, and I liked the magic stuff. I didn’t like the way the characters treated each other.

5 stars for the illustrations, 2 for the storyline.

This book is SO fun, what a great love letter to magical girl manga. I think the series name is a little big on the cover, but maybe it'll make more sense where there are more books out.

Coyote thought that staying in one place after her adventures in The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise would be okay, but being new to middle school in the 8th grade is hard. She does have one sort-of friend, and the school librarian is nice ("There's a limit to how bad a school can be if it's got a library. That's just a fact."). While hanging out in Yager, the van they lived in for sevearl years, Coyote finds a box containing her mother's ashes. She asks her father, Rodeo, about it, and he tells her that he hasn't had the heart to scatter them yet. Both her and her mother had written down where they wanted their cremains scattered in a copy of Mary Oliver's Red Bird, but Coyote is horrified to realize that she sold the book when they were traveling. When COVID shuts down her school for three weeks, she talks Rodeo into hitting the road. She doesn't tell him that she lost the book, but plots a course to revisit the shops where she might have left it during a small window of time. Of course, they are all over the US, but since Rodeo is very philisophical, he buys into the idea that the mother wanted the process to be a journey. Salvador, whom they met on their last trip, is invited along, but so is Candace, a neighbor whom Coyote likes, up to the point where she suspects the woman might be more than a friend to her father. Along the way, the group picks up Wally, a retired office worker who wants to travel but doesn't want to drive. His cultural background is Thai, and there is a racial incident because he is Asian and people are upset about COVID that mirrors so many of the horrible incidents that occurred during that time. The restaurants are only doing take out because of the pandemic, but the thrift stores are open. The book doesn't surface, and Coyote becomes more and more desperate. In Pittsburgh, the store is closed, so after some bowling, Coyote and Salvadore sneak out to try to break into the store. Coyote manages to break her arm, but the police and the store owner are kind about it after Rodeo pays for the broken screen door. Eventually, Coyote has to tell her father the truth about the book and the lack of plans for an exact place to scatter the ashes, and they realize that the picture of the book they've been referencing is actually of the very book that Rodeo had, and they manage to drive to the thrift store and talk to the owner. He's just given the book to a friend, but Doreen still has the book. They even ask her to continue back to the west coast to scatter the ashes over the family's favorite pond. While the trip doesn't go smoothly, it is an adventure.
Strengths: It was interesting to see the pandemic portrayed in a book that wasn't ABOUT the pandemic. Life did go on in a limited way, so having Coyote on her journey during that time made sense. Candance was a reasonable addition, and Coyote's attitude toward her was very realistic; she liked her, but also resented her; she wanted to be kind, but struggled with actually acting that way. Coyote and Salvadore have to look at their relationship again as both have gotten older, and Wally and Doreen are reasonable travel companions. I liked the inclusion of books, and was glad to see that Coyote was a big reader. I was also glad that Yager didn't have any mechanical problems; during the pandemic, it might have been difficult to get it fixed!
Weaknesses: During the pandemic, our thrift stores and bowling alleys were all closed, so that seemed unusual. Also, having had to deal with three sets of cremains recently, I would imagine that the ashes would have been delivered in a plastic bag, and it would be very odd for Rodeo to pour them out of the bag into a box.
What I really think: This is a great choice for readers who want to know what happened to Coyote and her father, for fans of Mary Oliver, or readers who enjoyed Lawrence's Fire on Headless Mountain or Burnham's The Infinite Questions of Dottie Bing.

Inspired by Sailor Moon, Brennan’s Magic Girl series is about Kira who wants to be a Magic Girl so badly when a mysterious Catacorn shows up and may be able to help her with her goal.

Such delightful chaos! In this fresh take on the magical girl trope, we follow Kira a messy, imperfect normal girl as she starts a new school year at Neo-Earth Junior High. She wants to start a new era for herself but keeps getting overshadowed by her rival, who is now a magical girl. Then one night she wishes on a star that crashes into her backyard and produces a Catacorn. Kira befriends the Catacorn in the hopes of becoming her magical girl familiar, but nothing is as simple as it seems. Kira and Catacorn navigate the adventures of junior high, magic, and friendship and learn some lessons along the way.

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House Children's for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

The art style was really cute and stylistic but the writing was confusing. I could not remotely follow anything in the story and its characters...especially with how annoying the protagonist was. It's a shame since I do like magical girl stuff but the plot was just all over the place.

Kira wants this year to be different - she wants kids to see how amazing she is andhow cool and popular she could be. But when a classmate who she has always rivaled with gets magical powers and a cool sidekick, she is mad! It should be her! Funny and kinda ridiculous, this wil be a big hit with readers who are fans of the Babysitter's Club, Witches of Brooklyn, and Raina Telgemeier.

I was not a fan of this one. I found the characters annoying and unlikeable. The whole magical girl system doesn't make much sense. I also did not like the art.

I really wanted to be blown away by this book, but the plot of the book was a little disjointed.

PROS

The art was adorable. The facial expressions clearly carried emotion. The anime flavor was palpable and would appeal to people who like that medium.

CONS

There was portions of the plot and characters that just did not jive well for me. When Catacorn first shows up, I was unsure (for a LONG time) whether she was a good character or not. Like, I thought she was evil and lying and going to betray Kira. The facial expressions and the decisions made both fed into my confusion. There was never a moment where I thought to myself "Oh, she is sincere."

The same held true for Kira. She was generally unlikeable. Her transformation was slow and too little too late for me.


FINAL VERDICT

This would be a fine addition to a public library with an ample budget and a draw for "magical girl" stories. However, my 3rd-5th grade school library will not be purchasing.

This was fun! It was very true to how tweens feel and how they act. But I didn’t love it. I loved the illustrations, but the story was I don’t know. It wasn’t all the way there?

I loved how this form was used and the color pallet. I enjoyed reading it and how the characters developed and grew.

This was an interesting story with beautiful illustrations. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but I know my students would love this book. The story is cute and highlights the complexities of middle school in a magical way.