Graphic Novel Review: The Tea Dragon Festival by Kay O'Neill

Graphic Novel Review: The Tea Dragon Festival by Kay O’Neill

Synopsis:

Rinn has grown up with the Tea Dragons that inhabit their village, but stumbling across a real dragon turns out to be a different matter entirely! Aedhan is a young dragon who was appointed to protect the village, but fell asleep in the forest eighty years ago. With the aid of Rinn’s adventuring uncle Erik and his partner Hesekiel, they investigate the mystery of his enchanted sleep… but Rinn’s real challenge is to help Aedhan come to terms with feeling that he cannot get back the time he has lost.

Review:

Once again I am in awe of the illustrations of this graphic novel series. It is still my absolute favourite art style and it seems to be getting better with each instalment.

There is actually a little more of a story to this one, everything is more developed. Which I really loved. It was so nice to see a few characters, as their younger selves, in The Tea Dragon Festival. I liked that other characters were wondering about what they’ve been up to, but as someone who read the first instalment you know more than they do. That was a nice touch and really made you feel involved in the story.

The Tea Dragon Festival focused a lot less on the actual tea dragons and more on other characters. Which I didn’t hate, but the tea dragons are so cute I really wish they were in this more. The same can be said for the festival, I feel like it was brushed over a little too quickly, but I still really enjoyed it.

Again, I loved the end section that gives you a lot more detail on the characters, especially the mountain variants of the tea dragons. The illustrations were beautiful and the deeper context is enjoyable to read.

I said this last time, but if you haven’t checked out The Tea Dragon series yet, you really need to. They are seriously stunning and are lighthearted fantasy reads.