Book Review - 'The Witching Hour' by Jennifer Harris (Writer), Adelina Lirius (Illustrator)

Something cranky this way comes...

It's "the witching hour", with the emphasis on "witching", and it's about getting a crying, cranky baby to sleep, told through a witchy aesthetic and lens, and I adore it for it.

'The Witching Hour' is a witchy family picture book that has lovely art, nature, a hollow tree house, cats, rabbits, bats, spiders, owls, woodpeckers, mice, fairies, brooms, herbs, puppets, pink poodles, the crescent moon, two witch mums with bulbs, fruits and acorns for hats, and a helpful (similarly hatted) older sibling for the crying baby at the witching hour.

I love the aesthetic the most, and the idea is charming all on its own.

It's a cosy and familiar little fantasy book, for children and parents. There definitely could have been more to it, but I like it as it is.



'Anything can happen in the witching hour.'



Hooray for LBGTQ+ witch family books, for the holiday seasons - Halloween and Xmas, and every equinox!

Final Score: 3.5/5

Book Review - ''Twas the Night Before Pride' by Joanna McClintick (Writer), Juana Medina (Illustrator)

''Twas the Night Before Pride' is a sweet, beautiful, bright, inclusive, vitally important, magnificent and triumphant LBGTQ+ picture book for children. It is loud and proud in its love and educational factor.

The lovely, enchanting rhyming, the history lesson of the queer community and Pride (in the US) up to the current era, and the most wonderful family and acceptance theme make it the ultimate comfort read.

I wasn't sure about the simplistic and cartoony art at first, but it's part of its love and comfort aesthetic for children, and it does what it sets out to do very well. With charm. And pride.

It's all about love, which is what the world will always need.

It will always need drag, and gender nonconformity, too.

It will always be our responsibility to choose kindness, compassion and empathy.

Read another recent LBGTQ+ children's picture book review of mine, 'My Shadow is Pink', here.

Plus 'A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo', 'And Tango Makes Three', 'My Magic Family', 'The Answer (Steven Universe)', 'The Big Day (A GIANT celebration of love)', 'Power to the Princess: 15 Favorite Fairytales Retold with Girl Power', 'Maiden & Princess', 'Prince & Knight', 'Prince & Knight: Tale of the Shadow King', 'Heather Has Two Mummies', 'Molly's Family', 'Cinder & Ella', 'Love, Violet', and 'The Witching Hour'.

From the ''Twas the Night Before Pride' blurb: A glittering celebration of queer families puts Pride gently in perspective—honoring those in the LBGTQ+ community who fought against injustice and inequality.



'Pride’s... a day that means “Together, we are strong!”'



Happy Christmas and Pride, everyone.

Final Score: 4/5

Witchy Ways (2024) post

I feel it is my civic and human duty to let people know of the existence of an LBGTQ+ witch movie on Amazon Prime called Witchy Ways. It's very low budget, but it's nicely done, and made by a femme film crew. It's nothing like Hallmark or Lifetime. It's got witches, lesbians, nature, girl power, and bereavement, self-discovery and acceptance themes, what more could you want?

Witchy Ways is a sweet and moving little film, and I recommend it.

It's always good to let the queer community know that who they are is real, authentic, valid and accepted, and they deserve everything, and that includes being out in the open, and safe, and loved, and being represented 

everywhere - whether they are witches or not. Let them know they are loved so very much.

It makes no sense when they are censored, ignored, and erased. That is discrimination and prejudice, like any other.

People are people, and that means everyone is different. Nobody's existence should be up for debate; nobody's identity should be a political issue, agenda, or point of deliberate, malicious division. That is just fact.

Whoever you love and whatever your gender is human nature, nothing more to it. It should never be a cause for contention, and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong, and a coward afraid of change, progress, and love - for themselves and others. Plain and simple.

It is coming on 2026. I think it is time for us to grow up, and finally, fully see the harm - the dangerous, deadly harm - that bigotry is, and always has been, causing the world, don't you?

Help make the world a better, more loving and kind and safe place to live in for everyone.

Happy Christmas! 🎄🤶❄❅❆⛄⭐🌟😇😃😍😊🥰