Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Il ragazzo strega by Molly Knox Ostertag

13 reviews

tinysierra's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Witch Boy was an enjoyable story with beautiful art. 

I liked the way that time was portrayed. The scenes at night had a black backdrop while the daytime had a white backdrop. 

Book 9 for the
#TransRightsReadathon2024

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Bullying

Moderate: Confinement and Kidnapping

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

novella42's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, and Animal death

Moderate: Body horror, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

pastelkerstin's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying

cat12345's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexism, and Blood

Moderate: Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Confinement

bi_n_large's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

lunarxcross's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

 10/10. I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The illustrations are so wonderful and the storyline is very compelling. The ending was particularly heartwarming. Highly recommend. Also, my 5th-grade students loved it as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Animal death, and Kidnapping

strict gender norms, enforcement of gender roles

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexism, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Kidnapping and Transphobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

rtaire's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Gaslighting

readaloud_mom's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, and Kidnapping