Manga Review - 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story, Vol. 1' by Magica Quartet, Hanokage

2026 REREAD:

WELCOME TO OCTOBER MAGICA!

Today I reread the first volume of the first 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' spinoff manga I checked out, 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story, Vol 1'.

I confess to remembering pretty much nothing of 'The Different Story' spinoff before embarking on the October Magica quest. All I knew peripherally was that it is a, well, different story and retelling from the canon; it is from an alternate timeline, as opposed to the timeline we follow in the anime (time travel in stories opens up so much potential, doesn't it? As long as it's written thoughtfully and carefully). But I'm glad to be revisiting it, because it is really excellent, and it holds up well.

'Vol. 1' is, oddly, both a comfort read, and a deep dive depressing reel. The action sequences and witch designs are drawn fantastically, but what is most important is the character work. Meaning, Mami and Kyouko, and their blooming, yet tragic relationship. The manga does an amazing job showing their spirits soar and sour at crucial moments in their shared journey. It is wonderful and heartbreaking to read about.

This volume is Mami's and Kyouko's tragic tale. Theirs was a bond, made between two lonely magical girls who at first saw eye-to-eye on how to fight and defeat witches (for their grief seeds, as well as saving as many people as possible) and their no-less harmful familiars. They decided to team up and become friends, and learn from one another, so they were not alone in their secret, solitary and dangerous lives anymore. They could've been called shared soul sisters.

But after a horrific tragedy struck one magical girl's life - destroyed it entirely - she changed. Upended were her old viewpoints, and she was left a bereaved, broken and depressed magical girl who was no longer a selfless hero. She changed her methods, and how she saw things, and the world, and that included the nature of what wishes should be granted to transform into magical girls in the first place.

And so, the two once hopeful girls ended up fighting each other instead, and then, distraught and heartbroken, they parted ways.

It is the kind of tragedy that 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' excels at.

Plus it's great to see Mami and Kyouko interact and be together, in a special soul unity of friendship, who are in each other's hearts always, when in the anime they are hardly shown in tandem, if they get to exist in the same place at the same time at all.

Evermore is it great, uplifting even, to witness a rapport between magical girls in 'Madoka Magica', every time, no matter how badly it'll turn out.

I wonder about what other unfamiliar and unlikely groups of magical girls are in the subsequent volumes...

Slight spoiler, but it is lovely that we, along with Mami, get a chance to see Kyouko's family, including her little sister Momo, while we can, while it lasts...

Wait, how do the magical girls already know about the upcoming Walpurgis Nacht (Night? The name seems to switch around in manga form)? I thought only Homura had that knowledge. Has the the gigantic witch of city-destructive power appeared somewhere else before, to have prematurely gained a reputation of sorts in the magical girl community? "Rumours" don't cut it. WTH?

I'm not a fan of the comedic inside covers of the manga volume this time round. The back cover especially seems homophobic and in bad taste (moreso if you're a Madoka and Homura shipper), even if it is meant to be a joke (it isn't funny) and teasing (again, nobody decent is laughing; it is just cruel and misguided "humour").

The focus of 'The Different Story, Vol 1' is entirely on Mami and Kyouko. Kyubey doesn't appear much, and Madoka, Sayaka and Homura don't show up until the last seven pages. Who will volumes 2 and 3 focus on? I seem to remember that 'The Different Story' as a whole is mainly about Mami? And Kyouko on the side, too, maybe? Everyone's an awesome character deserving of exploration and expansion, and in this particular instance I'd love to see more of Mami.

Mami Tomoe - beautiful, smart, hopeful, optimistic, mature, maternal, big-sisterly, a hand-holder, yet scared herself, and complex and tragic in every way; she suits the themes of 'Madoka Magica' perfectly.

Well, we'll see how it goes for any of the characters in 'The Different Story, Vol. 2'.

One ironical, foreshadowing line at the beginning, from a nameless magical girl to Mami:


"Don't overdo it. You only have one life, so protect it. [...] Don't go mistaking a familiar for a witch anymore, okay?"


It's more subtle than, say, "Don't go losing your head", at least.

Happy October Magica!

Final Score: 4.5/5

EDIT: My first review below really holds up. Blimey, did I write all that? I can't believe it.





Original Review:



A great manga addition to the 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' franchise. Not having heard many positive things about its other spin-off titles, I stayed clear of them despite loving the original series so much. But that wasn't the case with 'The Different Story'. Plus it stars only the characters from the anime, so I was more than a little curious.

'Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story, Vol 1' doesn't just focus more on the backstories of the Magical Girls Mami Tomoe and Kyouko Sakura, nor does it only explore their never-seen-nor-established-before relationship with each other. When I read the last few pages I discovered that 'The Different Story' really is that: an alternative storyline from the one in the anime. The only tweak so far is the development of the tragic friendship (if you already know that 'Madoka Magica' is a tragic series, this shouldn't technically be considered a spoiler. If so, sorry) between Mami and Kyouko.

Mami is a Magical Girl who wants to save as many people from witches and familiars as possible. She doesn't want to be like the other Magical Girls who will wait for the familiars to kill people so that they will grow to become witches to destroy for power-ups for the Girls' soul gems. Yeah, the story is already pretty dark and cynical for a manga of this genre. Having performed her self-appointed duties for a year now, Mami meets the newbie Kyouko, who is more willing to try different techniques in fighting witches. Kyouko even asks Mami to take her on as her disciple, her student. Mami is to be her senpai.

The two instantly become best friends, having been lonely and lost for so long.

Mami even invents a phrase for Kyouko to yell out for one of her magical attacks. How adorable!

We see Kyouko's family in this manga, and the struggles she has to face in being both a Magical Girl and a priest's daughter. Her tragic past is explored in a lot more detail than in the anime series, making it more poignant towards the inevitable climax. I have never felt sorrier for Kyouko Sakura. It seems she really was an innocent, idealistic Magical Girl once.

And poor, poor little Momo...

Mami is perhaps the stronger of the two for sticking to her goals and ideals in the face of tragedy. She may even be interpreted as a big sisterly saint who only lets her guard down in the worst possible moments. But in a myriad of ways Kyouko's story is the most heartwrenching. You can't exactly blame the fourteen-year-old girl for turning and abandoning her senpai's view of life as a selfless Magical Girl. Heck, I'm impressed she didn't commit suicide after all she suffered through. You understand her reasoning, and why Mami's logic of protecting people and their happiness could be flawed.

Mami Tomoe once again is alone in the world, with no family and friends who share her understanding, and her desperate need to be a good hero and teacher to others.

The girls had a sisterly bond which started out so hopefully; to have it shatter is the final tragedy of this volume.

Kyuubey doesn't appear much here, which is just as well. Madoka and Sayaka don't show up until the very end, with Homura drawn ominously in one panel...

'The Different Story' has nice, expressive artwork (I especially love Mami’s numerous facial expressions), as well as being a good companion tale to the 'Madoka Magica' series. It is not nearly as violent or horrific as the original story - those sorts of scenes are either off-panel, implied or merely told to us - and it is a little short, with well-drawn but too-brief battle scenes. But the themes of friendships being tested, knowing what you are doing when trying to make other people happy, and what it truly means to be a so-called powerful person who thinks she knows all the right answers, are all present. The manga presents one or two different angles in viewing what it entails to be a Magical Girl.

No romance with a boy in sight, too. Was the author intending a kind of closer-than-friends vibe between Mami and Kyouko? Either way I welcome it; they are good together.

Enjoyable yet sad, I recommend ‘The Different Story’ to 'Madoka Magica' fans everywhere, who don't mind reading into a bit more tragedy and melancholy.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Saga, Volume 1' by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Artist)

2023 EDIT: Rereading and skimming it:

It's good, but it's not great. Not that great, anyway. Not to me.

The comic is hugely, freshly creative, but I can't even call it feminist (breastfeeding POC heroine on the cover aside). It's full of action, violence and swearing. Too much swearing, in my opinion. And shock value.

Despite everything, despite loving how "new" 'Saga' was in 2015, I have had no interest whatsoever in continuing the series since then. Other interests in things closer to my tastes have caught my attention. I haven't even thought about 'Saga' in years. So the first volume goes off my comics shelf at home, I'm afraid.

Final Score: 3.5/5





Original Review:



"A writer and artist at the top of their games, creating the emotional epic that Hollywood wishes it could make." - The A.V. Club



I couldn't have put it better myself. Especially considering that now more than ever Hollywood needs to start making movies with the fresh originality and diversity of a true emotional rollercoaster; one which actually touches audiences in meaningful ways.

'Saga, Volume 1' does just that, with all the creative WTF-ness surrounding a solidly-structured story epic you can muster in 160 pages. To merely call it a comic book or a graphic novel would not do it enough justice - like calling it 'Star Wars' meets 'Romeo and Juliet' (urgh) would be understating how great it is. Although like 'Star Wars' it is a pleasant mix of both science fiction and fantasy elements. It also makes me think of what a graphic novel version of Laini Taylor's 'Daughter of Smoke of Bone' series would look like. It is a bit of everything you can imagine.

'Saga' is the right title for this comic - one word, but to the point. Speaking of diversity, the cover features a woman of colour breastfeeding. You can do anything these days if you only have faith and the determination to see it through.

Moving on, I won't waste time explaining too much of the plot and set-up, since many other reviewers have done so (or tried to, given how huge and diverse in culture the galaxy-and-worlds-building is). But I will emphasise how utterly crazy the universe Brian K. Vaughan created is, with its planets consisting of possible-drug-induced-fantasy imagery, and scenes leaving you thinking, "What the HELL was that?!"

As you can imagine, everything packed in 'Saga, Volume 1' is glorious.

An abridged version of the story is this: Marco and Alana are people of two different species that are at war with each other. Alana is from the large planet Landfall, inhabited by winged people who are technologically-advanced, and Marco is from Landfall’s moon, Wreath, inhabited by horned people who use more magical means of fighting. The two of them had escaped guard duty and prison to elope. The comic starts with Alana giving birth to their baby daughter. And from there it is a race against time to escape their own people who will do anything to see them dead.

'Saga' is about a family trying to find a new, peaceful home. It may set out to be one of the sweetest, bravest, most bizarre but wholly believable love stories ever told. Drama and conflict behold!


In this galaxy far, far way, there is, ahem:

1. A race of grey people with televisions for heads. The scene in which the reader is first introduced to this race has two of them in a position of sexual penetration - one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my life, period. I'm really starting to love comic books.

2. An old woman with a unicorn horn on her head named Vez, and a "Lying cat" who says "Lying" when someone with her is, well, lying.

3. A naked female bounty hunter called the Stalk, who is like a white scorpion/spider hybrid with eight pink eyes. She is GORGEOUS!

4. Pink mutilated ghost kids who haunt a forest, where the plants kill wanderers ("This is what I get for marrying a vegetarian", says Alana, "Even the goddamn plants want us dead!"). This is also where Izabel, a ghost girl with attitude and a missing torso, steps in. She will accompany our heroes to find a rocket ship that is also a tree with a mind of its own.

5. A sex planet called Sextillion with women who are large heads on legs – literally - and where anyone and anything will have sex with anyone and anything ('Saga, Volume 1' is the most explicitly adult graphic novel I've ever read, and I'd seriously only recommend it for adults).

6. An old romance novel of Alana's that becomes a plot point. I'm not kidding. This comic is amazing.


And that's not even half of the bizarre and even horrifying things 'Saga, Volume 1' has to offer. What makes it even better is that, in the comic's universe, everything is treated as completely normal; ironically making the story ever more believable and compelling. Here is a galaxy that is stars-away different and yet similar to how we live in our little world.

The first volume features a lot of strong language, graphic sex, nudity, and violence. As well as racism, war and the monstrous prices for living through it, there are also issues of breaking pledges of nonviolence, and child sex slavery.

All the characters are great, even the "villains". I use the word “villains” in quotation marks, because the grand government of Landfall, the Wreath mages, and the hired freelance bounty hunters - who are all hunting Marco and Alana down - are nonetheless sympathetic. We see each of their inner struggles, and their family members. My favourites are the Prince Robot of the TV-headed people, and the beautiful Stalk.

Marco and Alana are a wonderful couple to read about. Their dialogue exchanges, their banter and how they bounce off each other, are a joy. Alana is feisty (I hate using that word to describe a female character, but it fits her well here) but down-to-earth. I loved her sense of humour and witty remarks, and how the artwork brilliantly conveys her facial expressions in emotional moments, such as fear, anger, and annoyance. Her weapon is a peashooter only set to incapacitate. Marco is a pacifist magic-user possessing a sword he's vowed never to use unless in dire situations. He is a father now and wants to solve all confrontations with as much reason and heart as possible. He also has his fair share of secrets, and a dark, violent side.

At this point the reader doesn't yet know how these two had come to love one another - enough to risk everything to elope and have a child in the middle of a war. But it's telling of a fantastic writer that the couple still seem right for each other, and are interesting individually.

Marco and Alana are equals in every sense, even in parenting, except for their alien differences. They get along to the best of their abilities. They'd have to in hiding, and through travelling in dangerous areas. They just wish to keep their baby safe at all costs. If not, then they all will have to die, with no hope of escaping the galaxy towards a safer planet, or perhaps changing anything in the war (the comic does make a point that the baby won't be a chosen one or anything clichéd like that; the couple are fighting to stay alive, like any normal people would, and that's it). This married-man-and-woman team would make great parents, that is, if the universe will give them a chance - a chance for them to settle down and get their shit together.

As for the baby herself? I won't say what her name is as I think that would be slightly spoilery. But to add another layer of strange (and I know that's saying something), and of subversive original storytelling, she is the narrator of 'Saga'. ‘Saga, Volume 1’ is told in the past tense from when the newborn is presumably an adult, with timeless insights reminiscent of Melina Marchetta, and the similar wit and sass of her mother. This choice of narration might be perceived as immediately spoiling the whole story, since we know the baby will in fact survive at least long enough to be able to narrate and sneak in a little foreshadowing and references of the future. But we still don't know about the fates of the other characters in the baby's story, not even her parents; leaving the reader wanting to know more than ever what happens to their already-favourite characters. She is vague in those kinds of details, and doesn't explain the volume as it's happening nor does she give away anything important about the plot. It is predominantly show-don’t-tell, and reveals clues bit by bit to the reader.

Smart and subdued, I appreciated the narrative style of 'Saga, Volume 1'.

Here, at the start of her life and adventure, the baby is perfectly normal (well, as normal as a baby with tiny horns and wings can be): adorable and very much innocent. For now...

I've said my piece. Surely this must be enough to make anyone who hasn't read 'Saga' yet be at best curious. The first volume was in my local bookshop for only £7.50, and I don't regret a penny spent on it. 'Saga, Volume 1' is in every way a mature but colourful, exciting and emotional fantasy epic that is strictly for adults, and treats its readers as such. It might have everything a starved and unsatisfied adult looks for in a story. Both hard and soft in content, I ended up enjoying it immensely.

Oh, and my favourite line is: "Now be a dear and fuck the fuck off!" - Brought to you by the Prince Robot.

If the graphic novel doesn't get adapted into anything - be it a movie, television series or even a radio show - then popular culture is sorely missing something. This is the sort of creativity and original and relevant storytelling we need.

Highly recommended even to non-comic readers. ‘Saga, Volume 1’ is too cool to miss.

Final Score: 5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Birds of Prey, Vol.1: End Run' by Gail Simone (Writer), Ed Benes (Artist), Adriana Melo (Artist), Alvin Lee (Artist)

This comic has quite a few glaring flaws - in its artistic freedom and story department - which I'm sure have nothing to do with me not having read any other 'Birds of Prey' works beforehand. But by the screaming canaries was the volume a lot of fun to read. Fast-paced action, great characters who’re each given panel time - and for some even whole chapters - to develop, a dark tone, and progressions and twists to the plot that are well balanced and flow evenly.

As it turns out, Gail Simone can write not just one or two believable and relatable female characters in one comic volume. She can write several in one solid issue. The whole flock (apologies for the bad pun) of the Birds of Prey are memorable and engaging in their own way.

But the star of 'Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: End Run' is Black Canary, aka Dinah Lance. She's one of the best martial arts experts in the world, and she can sound a building-shattering banshee shriek (try saying that ten times over). She even once defeated twelve born-and-bred assassins. Black Canary is resoundingly cool, with a sympathetic side brought up by a past involving a broken superhero family, an ex-mayor husband in jail, and a missing foster daughter. So her outstanding resilience in nearly every dangerous situation imaginable is not overblown to make her look awesome for the sake of it. Rather, it is to show how strong she is; coping despite all the terrible things happening around her, like all the information on her friends and family being leaked online, leaving them wide open to deadly assassins. This heroine is not invulnerable; she’s just experienced enough to endure these things as a superhero with a misguided and violent past. Black Canary is implied to be harbouring a death wish as well as a vow of not using senseless violence, but she refuses to give up where there is hope. Then there's her friends, the Birds of Prey. Everything about this lady screams high-octane, and I love it.

The one who brings the Birds together is Barbara Gordon, aka The Oracle, aka the former Batgirl before being rendered handicapped. This computer genius and hacker is as wonderfully-written as she is in Gail Simone's other comic, 'Batgirl, Vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection', even if she is a little too trusting and forgiving in this one. But even at her worst disadvantage she never caves over; Babs always uses her head and takes everything at face value, with a heart striving to understand better. She is the one who inspired Black Canary’s resolve not to kill or grievously injure others again.

Other Birds of Prey include:

Lady Blackhawk, aka Zinder: a confident, sweet-talking, legendary fighter pilot who I sometimes got confused with Black Canary because they both have blonde hair of the exact same style (they even wear black leather), but their personalities and dialect are different at least. 

Huntress, aka Helena Bertinelli: another heroine I knew very little about before reading this volume, and she doesn't get a lot of development until the last quarter. But like the other Birds she can kick arse and take names like nobody's business. She is an impulsive, act-now-think-later type of person, but she clearly loves her fellow Birds of Prey dearly. I love her sisterly relationship with Black Canary, whose life she would literally die to save. 

There is also the saintly, more feminine Bird: the peacekeeper Dove, aka Dawn Granger, whose only main characteristic is that she’s non-violent and angelic to the point of childlike naivety. She hasn’t any strong development or much panel time here – do superhero writers struggle with “pacifist” heroes, I wonder? - but she gets her moment of awesome when she punches the Penguin in the face, so I’m happy. And there’s Dove’s partner (and lover?) Hawk, aka Hank Hall, the only male Bird of Prey. He's a soldier on his second life - literally - and is Dove's more violent, polar opposite. Even he gets much more development than the little blue and white Bird. (=sigh= Maybe “happy” isn’t the word I’m looking for after all.)

I like how Gail Simone writes these characters so that, even to a novice like myself, I really felt their connection and understood their relationships with one another – formed through many years of fighting crime and social injustice. Despite the team's time apart prior to 'End Run', the friendship they share - especially between Oracle, Black Canary and Huntress – is authentic, and not without effort. Their interactions and witty dialogue exchanges show not only how much they care for each other, but how human these superhumans are. Sometimes being part of a team of understanding friends is better than fighting solo – both externally and internally.

Now for the downsides. 

'Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: End Run' has its share of silliness, there is no denying that. Like the scene with Penguin's blood-loss-induced, perverted fantasies that practically paint "Fanservice" on every panel they're in. I ask, what is the point of this scene? I hope Penguin being included in the comic at all wasn’t so that the fanservice could go all-out, even if it is only for a couple pages (I am suspicious because his role could have been filled by any villain).

Towards the end, it seems Black Canary has met her match with the assassin, White Canary. She clearly states in narration boxes that her next mission must be her last and she'll never return to Gotham City. However this, plus the build-up towards fighting the “world number one martial arts expert” Shiva to the death, has no real payoff. Black Canary barely even gets a chance to do anything. The “final fight” results in an anticlimax in the last few pages of the volume. Maybe more will be explained in the next volume, but I was still expecting a better wrap-up. On the bright side, it does keep the friendship-and-sacrifice theme intact.

Now let's talk about the artwork. The comic is drawn crisply and cleanly, with lines and shadows that brilliantly convey a dark atmosphere befitting the story. There is overall impressive detail on every page. 

Maybe too much detail, especially with the anatomy of the female characters. There is an abundance of adult female characters in 'End Run', and only two-or-three of them actually wear pants. A few or more wear fishnet stockings. And all of them have, uh, very healthy-sized breasts. Also, expect the artist to draw tightly-clothed butt-shots at any opportunity. I won't fault Gail Simone on this since I'm sure she hadn’t much input when it came to the art, but the fanservice contrasts greatly to how well she writes her female characters as human beings and not sexualised models for the male gaze (I'm sure I remember at least some the Birds of Prey wearing high heels during chase scenes and their run from the law too. How amateurish). It is for this reason that I am reluctant to label this comic as "feminist" or "feminist-friendly".

But still, the fanservice isn't too excessive, thank goodness, and it didn't distract me too much. It could have been a whole lot worse. I still liked all the characters in all their flawed and repentant glory.

'Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: End Run' - not perfect by any stretch, but it's fast-paced, action-packed, exciting, intelligently-written (for the most part), and accessible to anyone just getting into comic books. The artwork may be off-putting in some places, but Gail Simone's character-writing and ability to up the stakes in an already intense storyline is impeccable. It can get cheesy, but it's a guilty-pleasure flavour of cheese; similar to 'The Expendables', only with a female cast and stronger emotional resonance and character development.

I enjoyed this first outing into the 'Birds of Prey' world. Really, why isn't Hollywood making concrete plans to make a movie about these awesome ladies? They have the potential to be the next Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy. With the various announcements of female-driven superhero movies being made and released in the coming years (finally!), 'Birds of Prey' shouldn't be passed up. As long as the movie's writer(s) can write women, of course.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Book Review - 'The Cat in the Hat' by Dr. Seuss

2022 EDIT: Doesn't interest me much anymore. I don't think it ever did. Great rhyming, though.

Final Score: 3/5





Original Review:



Arguably Dr. Seuss' most famous book. 'The Cat in the Hat' is fun and really creative, if kind of creepy in a STRANGER-DANGER! INTRUDER ALERT! perspective. I wouldn't call it the best of children's classic literature - the two kids are blank slates that contrast with the troublemaking Cat and Things 1 and 2 (plus the delightfully nagging Fish). But it's playfully entertaining for what it is.

It also has one of the best closing lines ever:

"Should we tell her about it?
Now, what SHOULD we do?
Well...
What would YOU do
If your mother asked YOU?"


Final Score: 3.5/5

Book Review - 'The Lorax' by Dr. Seuss

2022 EDIT: Seriously overlooks capitalism and how THAT links to environmental issues - you cannot separate the two, and in fact pretty much EVERY problem in the world has a root cause in capitalism. But 'The Lorax' is such a wonderful, colourful and important children's book to read, that gets a lot of things right, way back in 1971. The Lorax is the darling, gruff, grumpy, furry and fuzzy conscience we all need. Not a thneed, or any materialistic product.


“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”


Climate change - it is a matter of human survival. A matter of life and death, further and further into our bleak future. We now live in a world where capitalism has gotten so bad, so out of control, that the privileged 1% literally do not care that thousands and thousands of people are dying because of their - the 1%'s - choices and actions, in order for their - the 1%'s - rich lives to stay the same. I don't know how this is not a wakeup call to knowing just how evil these "business" and "political" people are; these sociopaths.

Industrialism, and the megacorporations that rule the one world we have, are the not the right answers. If you don't care about the economy, you don't care about life, you don't care about anything but the unsustainable status quo that factually cannot last, and money. Endless, endless money. Those who have money will never be satisfied, because the more they have, the more they want.

That's the truth.

Final Score: 4/5





Original Review:



“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”


My first review of this year, of a book about our economy; the importance of conserving nature, and of keeping it green for as long as we practically can. And it's a 72 page-long picture book entirely in rhyme, and the review will be short because I'm busy and lazy at the same time. Wow I'm muddled up already.

Anyway, Dr. Seuss' 'The Lorax' is a cute, imaginative, colourful and deceptively simple story. It is about the opposition between an industrial businessman, the faceless Once-ler, and the Lorax, a furry creature who speaks for all the voiceless Truffula trees and animals. There are peaceful conversations, and both sides are shown to be sympathetic. Yet a bittersweet ending results from the consequences of careless actions. Disagreements and obstinately-fixed viewpoints can cause as much pollution to the human race as industrialism gone overkill. 'The Lorax' even gives a passing-the-torch-from-the-old-to-the-new-generation message. By learning from history's mistakes, people can make the future brighter for the one and only planet earth.

Talk about creating so much out of so little.

'The Lorax' is sweet, memorable, perfect for reading aloud to children, and is one of Dr. Seuss' best. That he wrote an environmental tale aimed at children in 1971 before such a thing was even an issue is remarkable to say the least.

UNLESS we care enough and go out and do something to try making a difference, nothing's going to change. This tiny picture book shows that anyone can achieve good change.

Final Score: 4/5

'Into The Woods' was fabulous! As it turns out, Johnny Depp is barely in it, which ends up being for the best.

I had started writing down my thoughts and dreams everyday extensively this year. Almost getting to a novel!

Bitchy Resting Face: invented by self-entitled guys whose major (or lesser) dating and flirting experience is with women who didn't like them or preferred not to give them the satisfaction of acknowledging them. Really, women should not still be expected to act like Stepford wives for men's pleasure and attention. And just because someone's not smiling doesn't mean they're not happy. It's their life, not an illness.

Dear writers. Could you please, please stop depicting "bossiness", orderliness and/or "control freakishness" in female characters as flaws? I'm tired of this. Assertiveness is a good, useful trait for everyone in life. It does not make a woman a bitch for manifesting even a little of it. And make it okay for her to get angry - that's healthy. Let's be glad of girls' voices; glad they are allowed to be human.