Gr 5–8—Zuli, a caretaker of birds' souls, encounters unusual worlds and sometimes frightening creatures as she
tries to discover why the birds are going missing. Gorgeous, dreamy illustrations bring this beautifully rendered
fantastical tale of mystery, discovery, and danger to life.

Zuli is a mysterious child, abandoned by her parents with a bejeweled bracelet and nothing else, living in an enchanted tree that serves as the reincarnation spot for all the birds of the world. But when one day the leaves stop budding and no new bird souls return to the tree, Zuli must go out into the real world to find out what is happening. Accompanying her is Frowly, a talking owl who also helps to guard the tree but, like Zuli, is among the living. Once they enter the real world, they soon meet friends and foes alike – with it sometimes being unclear who is who. This includes a goblin named Orien, a dragon named Argentus, a griffin named Heiran, a Kalinar captain named Fara, nameless wraiths, a witch-queen, and more.

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. I’m not usually the biggest fan of fantasy and one of the reasons why is because I feel like so much time is spent on the world-building aspect, creating a long introduction before getting to character development and plot. Here, the illustrations do a lot as well as the fact that Liu often starts with known magical creatures such as dragons and goblins, even if she ends up putting her own spin on them. I was pretty much sucked into the book immediately and wanted to see where it would go. The only disappointment was in finding that this is a volume one so it ends with the story incomplete (and right after an unexpected twist), and now I have to wait until October for the second volume to be released.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. There is so much care put into every detail. Every page bursts with rich color, making this a beautiful read. The expressions on the faces of all the characters help to tell the story, as of course does showing the different magical creatures and settings. Again, this allows the reader to jump right into the story without having to stop and spend sentences and sentences (or even pages and pages) to describe what each place and being looks like. The main protagonist is Black; all other characters are some kind of non-human creature so that’s not much more for diversity – although I do appreciate that Fara the captain, who is a well-trained fighter, is female.

On a very stripped-down basis, the story’s structure reminds me of a Disney movie: A young girl must go on an adventure (leaving her home) and has a talking animal at her side (who provides comic relief) before quickly meeting a bumbling but lovable boy around her age who also has an animal companion. For that reason, I think older kids who are moving away from Disney movies but like that general structure might also enjoy this book. Kids who enjoyed fantasy series like Harry Potter or some of the Rick Riordan Presents books might also find this appealing. ( )

Really good! Everyone looks like Disney characters here, and the palette is very colorful. I like Zuli a lot, and I wish I had book 2 already. ( )

Representation: Black main character

7.5/10, what an epic graphic novel, the world and art were amazing. ( )

3.5! I really like the way the artist mixes in occasional comedy panels within an otherwise serious and focused fantasy story. I forgot this wasn’t a standalone so I trolled myself thinking it was going to come to a conclusion. Uses many fantasy tropes but creates a world and story that succeeds in feeling original. ( )