Reviews with content warning for Bullying - O Menino Bruxa

I really enjoyed this cute story! Thinking about possibly continuing it, but it's a good wrap up for now but does leave it open ended for it to continue on.

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readaloud_mom's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

My kid and I both really liked this graphic novel! We found Aster to be an appealing main character, and his sprawling, quirky extended family were pretty fun, too!

As noted by other reviewers, Aster seems to be some variety of gender-noncomforming/genderqueer/nonbinary/etc., though the book never declares a specific identity. (I have mixed feelings, but am basically cool with the lack of name; I feel like it works with the worldbuilding that Aster wouldn't have the language to talk about his identity, I know I sure didn't when I was his age).

There is also some quiet queer-parenting rep here - on the family tree, I can see that Aster has an aunt who is married to another woman, and his friend Charlie has two dads. I would have liked to ever actually SEE Charlie's two dads, and I would have liked to see the married aunts interacting. For instance, one of the stolen cousins has two moms, and the other two stolen cousins are brothers with a mom and a dad. We see the mom and dad hugging each other and Bearing Up Bravely and so on, but we don't get those same kinds of images with the two-mom family - I actually wonder a little bit about whether all of the queer parents were added to the story at the last minute, after much of the drawing was done? (FYI, subsequent books in this series remain pretty light on the aunts, but do introduce Charlie's dads as visible background characters.)

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shelvesofivy's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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anniereads221's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.5

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jessnreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I'm reading everything by Molly Knox Ostertag now, no questions. This was a really good book and graphic novels have become my weakeness, especially when they have magic.

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proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In Aster's family everyone is born with magic. Boys grow up to become shapeshifters, girls become witches. That's how it's always been. But Aster finds himself drawn to the girl's magic, with the spells and the incantations. He's spying on the girl's lessons in witchery, and then he practises on his own. Despite having an aptitude in that magic it is strictly forbidden for him to practise. When one of the boys goes missing during a shapeshifting lesson Aster knows he can help find him - but what will happen if he uses witchery to do so?

This is a middle grade graphic novel and therefore not very complicated in its magic system: men are shapeshifters, women are witches - period. For an adult reader this might seem very stereotyped and boring, but I find it clearly makes its point this way. The target group probably won't analyze too much, and neither do I. Instead I just state that everyone should be able to become whoever and whatever they want, without any lables.

I really enjoyed The Witch Boy and I look forward to reading the next book in the series!

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was so good! Very wholesome.

The Witch Boy follows Aster, a young boy from a family of magical people. The men are all shapeshifters while the women are all witches. Aster has never felt attached to being a shapeshifter and he'd much rather learn witchery. When his boy cousins start disappearing, Aster might be the only one capable of saving them.

I really enjoyed Aster's character. He must be protected at all costs. His story really shows gender exclusive activities are really harmful. I'm so glad he found a friend in Charlie! She was the best and always so supportive of him.

I enjoyed this world and I'm really curious to see how things will change for Aster in the sequel. I hope we also get to see more of the world. I wonder if there will be any trans or nonbinary characters. That was really the only thing this was missing.

Rep: biracial male MC, Black female side character with a broken leg and two dads, side characters with two moms, multiple BIPOC characters (specific ethnicity was not indicated), fat white female side characters.

CWs: Bullying, body horror, sexism. Moderate: violence, blood, animal death, injury/injury detail. Minor: gaslighting.

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