Beautiful characters and a great start to what seems like it will be a series. I would buy the next one to see where the story goes. I really like the art style and think it is done very well and fits the story perfectly.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Haru is an adorable coming-of-age graphic novel. I enjoyed the full-color artwork and the way the palate is used to reflect mood. There are a few multi-page landscape scenes that were stunning. Our main cast of characters were instantly loveable (especially Herb) and they clearly developed throughout the novel. The stakes were high, and the pace was fast enough to keep middle-grade readers engaged. Overall, Haru is a fast-paced, heartwarming read, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Chapter one begins with black and white illustrations and alludes to a darkness traveling across the land until it was snagged on a thorn of pure light. Unable to free itself, the darkness encapsulated its heart within the brambles of the thorns. The story then jumps to present day to Haru, a small blue bird who despite being unable to fly, still dreams of one day talking flight and their best friend Yama, a boar who finds a strange, cursed artifact. The artifact attaches itself to Yama and the two friends then find themselves on a journey to The Beacon in search of the answers to removing it.

Haru is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel, a coming-of-age story that also highlights the four seasons with Spring being the first volume. The colors of each page range from a muted turquoise background reminding me of the early dusk sky, to lighter shades of green indicative of daytime. With further pages having shades of yellows and pink. This volume is broken down into six chapters and chronicles Haru and Yama's journey to remove a cursed artifact. The atmosphere is very mysterious and shifts between darkness and periods of light to some downright creepy moments. I felt a sense of apprehension as I flipped pages and wondered what peril was in store for these two. And boy do they get into some sticky, dangerous situations. Everything moves along at a fairly quick pace and yet it still feels like some details were being left out, with some confusing points when Haru and Yama entered the mall. I wanted to know more, which I suspect will be revealed in one of the other seasons. Overall, I really loved the illustrations and would love to read more but might hold off until the full series is released.

Haru is a hauntingly beautiful coming of age story of a little bird who finds light in the darkest of places.

I absolutely adored this graphic novel! It's a light and adventurous story of finding one's strength and confidence in a world that has always been cruel. However, Haru is not alone and I love the emphasis of this in their best friend Yama, who is always by their side. And even though the story does get a bit dark, there is hope and the promise of getting through whatever life throws their way.

The story ends in a cliffhanger and I'm going to need the next book STAT. I need to know what happens next to Haru, Yama, Goose, and Herb!

Haru is a nice mixture of buddy story, coming of age, whimsical and truly creepy.
I found myself stopping to keep my work partner updated on what was happening, which is not normal for me. In this first volume, our heroes have already been in mortal peril multiple times, and even though this is just the first of four (I believe) books, I wasn't always sure they were going to survive. I'm talking big time peril.
This is a fun and exciting read. The artwork is very nice, and the character development is slow but rewarding.
I look forward to reading the remaining stories in this series.

This is a captivating and entertaining graphic novel for older children. A Coming of Age Story with a difference, plenty of adventure and peril, great characters and beautiful illustrations. Dark in places but very heartwarming and hopeful.

This novel is so cute. The artwork is beautiful and intriguing. It’s a bit different, a mix of darkness and light but it fits the setting perfectly.
The story is about a little blue bird named Haru and their best friend Yama. Yama comes across an ancient dark object and the two set out on a quest to find out what to do with it. Of course neither of them realizes the perils that are about to befall them! The story begins with a little lore to set the scene and then starts off with Haru heading to school with their little brother tagging along. It’s very cute and relatable.
The book moves along at a pretty quick pace and skips through some of the unnecessary day-to-day timelines which feels a little confusing as you read through, but I think it’s to move the story along quickly. Those parts are most likely completely unnecessary, but we may find out in future books if they were left out for other reasons. You can tell that there is so much more to the backstory of the individual characters and the whole plot that will be uncovered as we continue the series and it makes me very excited for the next book!
I would recommend for any YA reader that likes fantasy adventures, this has the beginnings of an epic fantasy story. Also for readers who get confused on where to read next in graphic novels, this flows nicely and is easy to follow. There is only one spot near the end which may be a little confusing as to who is talking when, but you can read the conversation in order or individually and it doesn’t change the conversation much.
Overall an intriguing and engaging graphic novel that left me wanting more!

"Haru: Book 1: Spring" is the first in a new graphic novel series following two friends on an epic quest. Haru, a blue bird who cannot fly, and their friend Yama, a boar-like animal, set off on a quest to find answers when a dangerous cursed object attaches itself to Yama. The art is at times adorable, at times scary, but always excellent. The story is intriguing and hints at deep darkness to come in future volumes. Reminiscent of "Tiny Fox and Great Boar" but much darker, this series is likely to appeal to middle grade readers and up. Highly recommended.

It's weird to say that I think it needed more character development, but I feel like I needed to know more about the main characters when we were watching them go through so much. The artwork and story is great -- I love quest stories, and this is a graphic novel with young protagonists and big stakes.
I am looking forward to reading the next story and finding out more about everyone.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me preview this

Our story follows a flightless bird named Haru and their best friend Yama, a pig, who find a strange artifact with evil energy leading them to journey beyond their home to destroy it.

The story is just beginning. There are a lot of unknowns regarding the world Haru and Yama live in and the magic in place. The plot isn’t unique, given its destroying an evil item that a villain desires to take back. However, the underlying themes of bullying, trust, believing in yourself, friendship, and forgiveness are holding this story together. Although it’s an uplifting story, it also gets quite dark so it may not be suitable for young kids. Also, the pacing of this volume is quite scattered and it’s hard to tell how much time has passed.

I have a hate-love relationship with the artwork. The artwork is cute with its small sized characters and designs. It’s detailed, yet raw which gives it a warm feel. I liked the use of colors to express different themes and scenery but I felt it lacked a thorough execution. The colors were at times too overwhelming covering the whole page in different shades of one color, making it overshadow the characters, emotions and scenery. It also transitions quite quickly between contrasts such as red and green without a change in scenery or tone.

The characters are interesting but I felt like I didn’t know enough about them by the end. This is the first volume so I’m sure I’ll understand them better in future volumes. I liked how Haru used the they/them pronouns because it felt natural and didn’t ruin the flow of the story. There is quite a large cast of characters aside from the main two in this story. Some are recurring with a prominent role while others are simply to assist with the story.

Overall this was an interesting read but one I would have liked more if there was a balance of colors in the artwork. I’ll probably continue this series sometime in the future because it’s still an interesting story with a great cast.

Haru and Yama are adorable characters. The illustrations throughout this world are amazing and I really liked what Latham created. While I read "sinister" in the description, this was a bit unexpectedly dark for me. It caught me off guard. I was still intrigued though and the story is well thought out. It's very interesting and finishing the first will leave you wanted to read the second.

I did decide to pass on this one for my 8 year old though. If you have a kid more easily frightened or on the sensitive side, I think the dark themes might be a bit much for them. This isn't to say anything negative about the story because I thought it was wonderful. Just a heads up for parents of kids like mine.

I will save this for my child until he a bit older and keep a look out for the second for myself so I can see how Haru's story ends (or continues)
;

Thank you Netgalley for advanced copy.
so for change of pace i read this.
really stunning artwork i would love to have in on my shelf.
its kids story i might rec read with for parents for kids age 5+.
it's because of the themes in the books stuffs like bullying implied which might to dark to younger kids.Full of lessons and mesmerising art.i will eagerly wait for second instalment of this.
really loved characters designs and backgrounds story felt alive .Very well done.

I thought it was going to be a cozy story but it was rather dark. The story and illustrations were both scary and I think this is for older kids. I might have liked it when I was younger but now I prefer cute and cozy stories, so it wasn't my cup of tea. However, it was well written and pretty illustrations.

Haru is a delight to read. It is a well-paced story about a small bird named Haru and their friend, an equally small pig named Yama. They find an amulet/stone one day after school which launches the beginning of their adventure throughout the book. The characters are loveable, and the story is very engaging.

I also found that the art style worked very well for the story. The character designs felt human without sacrificing any truly animal characteristics. The backgrounds and landscapes were also stunning and reminded me of watercolour-style paintings.

I found some elements of the story that were not explained very well, specifically Haru's mother. Overall, I loved reading this book and look forward to reading about Haru's adventure as it continues in future books!

I give this book 4.5/5 stars!

Haru has adorable art. The characters are cute and the story was ok. I think my students will enjoy this, it just wasn't really what I prefer.

3 stars

I got this on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a cute and nice graphic novel! I am so curious to learn more about this world and how it works and its history, and cannot wait to hopefully learn more in the next one!

Haru is such a cute bird and their friendship with Yama is also Amazing! And Goose is SO brave!!! I swear if something happens to any of them I will cry!

So much reflection can be made here and it hit me how deep a mot of these themes and topics are! I don’t think I would use it in my own Teaching but I DO think it could be!

Cannot wait for book 2!!!

Very Bone-ish, which is of course a good thing, this looks at a bird who wants to be rid of the bullying from school, and to leave the valley that it shares with a ghost of a mother, a tiny sibling, and a best friend who's a pig. When the pig stumbles across a briar-wrapped heart of pure evil, that has powers that come on like a mushroom cloud and alert a mushroom character to changes in the universe, things really kick into gear in dramatic quest fashion.

What is good about this is the simplicity – visually we seem to have more inked detail than Bone, although the colours never put too many tones on the page at once. No, it's the old school satisfaction to be had from a straight-up, untaxing fantasy saga, even if you are any proportion of your way through these pages and already working out there is a heck of a lot to come and this book is nowhere near any conclusion. Oh, and the post-apocalyptic feel, of the critters walking past dead Beetle cars and suchlike, is done nicely too.

What's not nice is of course the pronoun-mangling caused by our title character being ungendered. That sucks. I don't know how someone can work on a project for a decade – as this whole thing seems destined to take – and not know which gender their lead character is. But still, we get the drip-drip of the evil characters' presence growing, a sense of fine world building always around the corner, and likeable characters thrust onto their mission by accident, not because they have some secret untold destiny as such. Even with the wokeisms as mentioned this is still close to four stars, so I'd happily catch the other seasons as and when. Generally, this is my kind of comic.

I expected this to be cute and cozy based on the cover; boy was I wrong 😂 this was actually a great read, it is quite ghibli-esque with a dark side to the story! Also eerie-like. The art was absolutely beautiful, and I really thought the plot was engaging! Absolutely recommend.

I found it interesting in parts, but overall I liked it less, mostly due to a scary shift at one point. This was foreshadowed by the opening, but for a long time it is a rather nice juxtaposition of events. We follow a bird society in a land with traces of human civilisation but populated by animals. Here we get an adventurous little bird and her best friend, a wild boar, who along the way meet a talking mushroom aided by pollen. At the heart of it all is a sense of disenchantment and a search for a way forward, which is exploited to the full by the higher powers that appear in this volume. But the creepy zombies emerging from the lake are just the beginning. But the importance of knowing the past and brotherly love as lessons to be learnt are to be commended. But I'm just a bunny.

Haru is a little blue bird who stands out and is bullied by their peers. He and his best friend, a boar named Yama, stick to themselves. One day, while out in the forest, they find something dark and magical, and they know they need to find the rightful owner. Since they feel like no one will miss them, they set out on an adventure to return it. But this object is full of evil and starts to affect Yama in strange ways, The friends need to rid themselves of it, but it will not allow them to abandon it. Are they bringing the heart of evil back to it's master?