Tidesong by Wendy Xu

 

I came across Tidesong by Wendy Xu as I was browsing books on Amazon. I love a good middle grades graphic novel, and the beautiful cover art on this one immediately caught my eye. It was giving me major Studio Ghibli vibes, and I adore those movies, so I decided to pick this one up as part of my middle grades book haul that I got at the end of last year. One of my students was clamoring for another graphic novel to read in class, so I figured I'd read this one now so I could pass it off to her.

The plot of the novel follows a twelve year old witch-in-training named Sophie. She is descended from a long line of witches talented in water and air magic, and her mother and grandmother are pressuring to her attend a fancy magical academy to fully develop her gifts. She must take an entrance exam to be accepted into this school, so as the novel begins, she is sent to live with her Great-Aunt Lan and Cousin Sage to train for it.

When she arrives at her aunt's house, things don't go as she envisioned. Auntie Lan is very strict with her, and assigns her endless chores to complete instead of working on magical techniques. In a moment of frustration, Sophie attempts to cast some spells on her own, and ends up accidentally entangling her magic with that of a water dragon named Lir that happens to be passing by. Sophie's spell causes Lir to lose his ability to shift back into his dragon form, so until she can find a way to undo what she has done, he is stuck on land with her. Working together, the pair must figure out how to set everything back to normal so that Lir can go home and Sophie can try to get back to her studies.

Tidesong was a quick read, even by graphic novel standards, but it was a very cute story. The main themes have to do with self-confidence and learning how to forge your own path in the world, which are excellent messages for middle grades readers to absorb. Sophie was a very relatable heroine, and I enjoyed watching her grow and change as the story unfolded. Of course, the beautiful art style and color choices were by far my favorite things about the book, especially the illustrations of the dragons. It's worth giving this one a read just to look at everything.

That being said, I did wish that there had been a little bit more to the story. I felt like the pacing was too quick. Events that should have taken time to resolve were over in a flash and often lacked complexity and detail. The ending definitely felt rushed. I know that some of this is due to it being a middle grades book, but other graphic novels for this age group, like Another Kind or The Prince and the Dressmaker, were able to create complex, detailed plots and characters. Tidesong was definitely lacking in this area.

On the whole though, I did enjoy reading the novel and I believe my students will enjoy it too. This is one of those reads that feels very young and doesn't have great crossover appeal for older readers, but the gorgeous illustrations still make it worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing. I am happy to be able to donate this to my classroom library so that it can benefit the exact age of kids it was written for.     

Challenge Tally

Middle Grade Mission: 3/24

Total Books Read in 2022: 6