The Search for WondLa

First book in the series: It is great to find a book with a strong young female character as the centerpiece. Not a super-hero, just a young person that learns through her mistakes with reasoning and compassion. Yes it is set in a "futuristic" form of the planet earth, but what I found interesting after reading the first and now the second book in this series, is that I became comfortable with the characters and schematic of this new earth fairly early on. At first I thought that the speech and description of some of the characters were similar to the Jar Jar Binks character in star wars, but that view quickly changed. Every character serves a purpose in the story-line of this book and each one is well developed. This book has the excitement factor also for adults and kids to keep wanting to read on to find out where this leads Eva Nine and the choices she will make to get there. An exceptional book about survival, courage, acceptance, and yes, loss, but without the sap. At times you can really feel the underlying darkness in parts of this planet but you never get the feeling of true despair from the Eva Nine character. Instead you feel hope, steadfastness and moving forward. A true survival of spirit and mind. You witness her growth from naivety to understanding. I am always looking for books for my grand daughters (this book is for my 8 year old) that will not only challenge their reading and vocabulary, but also their questioning mind. In the process I have found that I also love reading this genre! This opens up a whole new world for all of us because of the follow-up conversations. It's amazing how much my grand daughters love to talk about the books they read with someone that has also read it. This has developed a love in my grand daughter for not only reading, but also for the actual book form to hold onto and read. This came through loud and clear after giving Percy Jackson and the Olympians a go on audible and my kindle. She absolutely states that she wants the actual books. With the Wondla series this is a big bonus because the illustrations are amazing. A big thank you to the libraries out there for carrying a wide variety of children's books. And a big thank you to this author and so many others out there for giving "kids of all ages" great material to read and looking forward to the third book in the series with anticipation.If you like Wondla, here is a list of similar genre books read and thoroughly enjoyed by this grand mother and her 8 year old grand daughter:We read the full series of the books listed below and they were all great!Gregor and the Underland Chronicles series by Suzanne Collins (yes, the same author that wrote the Hunger Games -also a kids book- although a bit older)Harry Potter Series by J K RowlingPercy Jackson and the Olympian series by Rick RiordanHow to Train your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell (we both giggle at times through these, they do have more humor in them which is a bonus)

I really like this book for the same reason that I like The Edge Chronicles Series ... the other worldly setting, the interesting plot, (and as juvenile as it sounds) the pictures.I give authors credit when they take on the task of both writing a story, and illustrating it. They get double credit from me if they're good at both.The illustrations are beautiful...and colored...not something you see a lot of outside of picture books that are 40 pages long, and read to very young children.The writing isn't the most lyrical I've ever read, but Tony gets his point across. I like the way he takes time to describe the landscape around, simply because I love how original, and alien it all is. A hill isn't just a hill, it moves, a tree isn't just a tree, it eats birds.Though for some who are more point driven, I guess the lengthy descriptions can seem a bit long-winded.Eva Nine's character at times seems kind of.... bratty? Or maybe she's just stubborn and strong-willed? Either way, at a couple points I found myself a little tired of her, and wished that she'd just do what she was being told.While I admit, I'm not the best person at judging character development, I think all the characters in the book were well defined, and they grew on me easily. There are obviously still things to learn about each of them, but Tony's got two more books in the trilogy to do that with. And I think that some of the beings that he's dismissed in the duration of the plot will make an appearance later on. (With the exception of a few, for reasons that become apparent after you read it.)The Search for WondLa was an engaging read. It was colorful both in its pictures ^_^ and in originality. It had a twist or two to the main plot, some of them you could kind of see coming, and others not so much.Though I have to say, I got more the impression of Alice in Wonderland... So when it was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it threw me a little. But I guess I can see it... the so called 'robot' was the Tin Man; I guess the 'human' was the scarecrow. But no Toto, or Lion? (Again, you have to read the book to understand.)Anyway, I look foreward to the next books. I will definitely be adding this series to my personal bookshelf.

My daughter and I loved reading this book together. A great adventure with excitement, twists and turns. Well worth a read.

My daughter loves it

I loved this book and can't wait until my son is old enough to share the story with him.

Wonderful book. Great art work, good story flow. But most importantly it has Studio Ghibli vibes to it all over. That's not to say this book copied Miyazaki's works, but rather it gives that same great feeling that you get after watching a Ghibli flick.

Since The Spiderwick Chronicles I've became a fan of the author and the illustrator. When the illustrator Shared this project with the world I was excited. The illustrations are awesome as expected. The story and characters are very exciting and creative. He worked hard to create a new universe to the detail.