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Truly stunning. The artwork is exquisite. Nightlights is a lot spookier than I expected a picture book to get. Hicotea managed to have an unflinching moment looking at a dissected frog, then floated into a truly original world inside a turtle's shell and then made a point of indicating wetlands are under threat (if vaguely/supernaturally so).
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Hicotea which is written and illustrated by Lorena Alvarez is an amazing book. I really like the use of graphic novels to transition readers from picture books to chapter books and I think this is a great example. Sandy goes on an adventure and finds herself transported into a magical realm. She is curious and adventurous which I think children would really like.

One interesting technique that the author uses is having the same character on the same page multiple times. The illustrator will have the character travel from left to right continuing dialogue throughout the page as can be seen with the quote that I posted. Other pages have comic book style boxes to portray the continuation of the story.

“Each of them represents a question that someone asked, and their journey to find an answer…“

“Take my home for example. Something that you thought was small is in fact almost infinite…”

When reading this book I thought of all my elementary students and how this would be difficult for all of them to read, which I think would make them disinterested in reading it.

This book would be extremely hard for children to read. It is super long and not broken up into chapters or sections. The illustrations and story are hard to follow as there are lots of picture boxes on each page and some text bubbles even overlap pictures.

“But you seem to have a curious spirit”
I love when books value curiosity!

I love the variety of panel sizes and orientation. It makes the story of pictures more interesting & everything is still all kept with the panels, to finish the completed look!

A cute graphic novel about a girl who wonders into the wetlands away from her class, and finds herself in a new dimension in a turtles shell. She learns lots about many animals and wants to protect them all. In the series of panels she solves a mystery that needs her help to finish!

This book again uses several themes / styles within the graphic novel realm. I found this book funny, and realistic. A great into into graphic novels

This book is a mix between several graphic books. It uses a little bit of manga and comic strips to make up the novel. The illustrations are very realistic

That‘s an interesting choice of perfume, Clara!

This book is very silly and because it takes place at catholic school it brings out aspects of religion in a unique way.

This story utilizes bright colors and different shaped frames. The publishing date is in 2019. As mentioned in the back of the book the bright colors represent the author and illustrator‘s home in Columbia. It also expresses her experiences in catholic school. This book uses humor to talk about school. I think it‘s adorable.

“You‘re going to catch a disease from holding that thing!”

Hicotea, A Nightlights Story by Lorena Alvarez was published in 2019. The illustrations are very colorful and bright. The font is very small, almost like iPhone messages. This comic is focused on the experiences and atmosphere of a Catholic School Lorena attended.

I read A Nightlight Story for #lmpbc and decided I needed to read the sequel. I actually enjoyed this one more. I LOVE the graphics in her books.