Caramel’s reviews – Page 2

Caramel reviews Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher by Jake Parker

Today Caramel reviews Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher, a fun graphic novel by Jake Parker first published in 2010. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, I can see you have a new graphic novel to talk about today!

Caramel: Yep! I don’t know if you remember that I reviewed Kepler’s Intergalactic Guide to Spaceships? This book is in the same universe.

S: Oh that is interesting! I knew it was the same author / illustrator, but I did not expect the books would be related.

C: Yes, he also was the person who illustrated Darkstalker: The Graphic Novel.

S: So you definitely like his drawing style?

C: Yeah, no question.

S: I am glad you got to read another book by him then. So tell me a bit about it. Who is this Missile Mouse? I am guessing he is the main character.

C: Yeah, it’s sort of obvious as the book is called Missile Mouse, so yes, but this is the beginning of the series based on this guy.

S: The author describes him on his webpage as follows: “Missile Mouse is a James Bond meets Han Solo for the middle-grade crowd. The cocky, big-eared rodent is a secret agent for the Galactic Security Agency (GSA) who prefers to do things the quick and messy way.” So he is a secret agent for the galaxy and he is kind of arrogant like Han Solo of Star Wars.

C: Yeah, that’s about right, and it’s a good description of Missile Mouse. So in this story Missile Mouse gets a new partner, Hyde, and they go on a mission to find and rescue this scientist from his kidnappers, the RIP (Rogue Imperium of Planets), which are sort of the bad guys.

S: Hmm, so the Galactic Security Agency is an arm of a galactic empire, and this RIP is their enemy?

C: Yeah, they are. So the galactic government is a peaceful state, and the RIP are trying to take over the galaxy.

Caramel is reading Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher by Jake Parker. — Caramel is reading *Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher* by Jake Parker.

S: Do we know much about the government Missile Mouse is working for other than it is peaceful?

C: I believe that it’s a democracy, but not much else is really stated.

S: So if it is anything like Star Wars,maybe there is a senate and so on. Okay, tell us more.

C: Before Missile Mouse joined the GSA he was a bounty hunter or a mercenary.

S: Really sounds like the Star Wars universe. But the main character is a mouse. Are the other characters all mice too? Or are there other animals?

C: No, the beings in the universe are a multitude of other animals and aliens that don’t look like animals we know on Earth.

S: Any bunnies? Any humans? Any dragons?

C: None of those showed up in the book.

S: Alright, we are mature enough to enjoy books with no bunnies or dragons.

C: Sure, I’m totally mature.

S: Yes, for a bunny your age, you are definitely mature. But you reviewed other books about mice. Remember The Mouse and the Motorcycle?

C: I also reviewed several books about Babymouse. And don’t forget Ragweed and Poppy and the others? I read all those books, too.

S: Yes, true. Marshmallow reviewed Flowers for Algernon, which also had a major mouse character, who did not speak but still. She also reviewed Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.

C: Yeah. So mice are neat. Anyways Missile Mouse is cool, too, and he is funny and adventurous and brave. And the book is an adventure story and a spy story, and you know I like all those things.

S: That’s true. You read all the Spy School novels, too.

C: Yeah, so spies and secret agents are cool. Therefore this book is cool. And there is some cool space stuff, which I also like.

S: So it is clear you enjoyed reading this book. I think there is at least a second Missile Mouse book. I am assuming you will want to read that too.

C: Yes, I will. In fact I am planning to dive right in as soon as we are done here. Are we done here?

S: I suppose we are. Would you like to wrap it up with your usual ending statement?

C: Sure! Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel loved reading Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher by Jake Parker and can't wait to read the second book in the series! — Caramel loved reading *Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher* by Jake Parker and can’t wait to read the second book in the series!

Caramel reviews Winnie’s Pile of Pillows by Dana K. White and Sarah Jennings

Today Caramel reviews Winnie’s Pile of Pillows: Making Room for the Things You Love Most, written by Dana K. White and illustrated by Sarah Jennings. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: Today we are talking about another picture book!

Caramel: Yes, this one is about a walrus named Winnie. She loves pillows, and begins collecting them after her Aunt Becky gives her some. Then she gets some more from a neighbor. And then she has a lot of pillows. Then she decides in the end that she has too many pillows.

S: Does she? I mean, how can someone have too many pillows?

C: Apparently it is possible. Her pillows take over her room.

S: Oh, I see. I guess one could have too much of anything…

C: Yes, apparently. So she takes the extra pillows and tries putting them away, but they come back out, so she organizes everything to make room. She picks the ones that are her very favorites, and she donates the others, just like her Aunt Becky was going to do with her glass animals at the beginning of the book.

S: Hmm, I am sure there would be other people who need pillows.

C: Yeah, see, I knew you would get it. Everyone needs copious amounts of pillows!

S: Yes, you do have a lot of pillows in your bed. But this is about a pillow takeover of a whole room! Winnie must have had a lot of pillows!

C: Yeah, she had so many that they made a maze in her room, and she couldn’t get out. There were a lot of other things the pillows stopped her from doing. Also the book says that at first the pillows made her feel something that felt like a tickle and a giggle. But when she has too many pillows, she feels like a squeeze and a sigh. No idea what either of those mean.

S: To me they mean that first the pillows made her happy, almost giddy and bubbly excited. But then she felt unhappy. The pillows made a lot of clutter and she felt like suffocating and getting lost and sad. Does this make sense?

C: Yes, I guess so. It is an interesting way to describe those feelings.

Caramel is reading Winnie's Pile of Pillows: Making Room for the Things You Love Most, written by Dana K. White and illustrated by Sarah Jennings. — Caramel is reading *Winnie’s Pile of Pillows: Making Room for the Things You Love Most*, written by Dana K. White and illustrated by Sarah Jennings.

S: What did you think about the illustrations?

C: The book is really colorful. And they are happy colors, pink, blue, orange, yellow, purple and so on. And it is kind of funny to see a walrus walking.

S: Yes, that is true. Winnie is supposed to be a walrus!

C: And I was surprised to see she had tusks. I did not know female walruses could have tusks but apparently they do. Theirs are just a bit smaller than the male walruses’, but they do have them.

S: Yes, I learned that today, too, from you looking it up!

C: So this is also an informative book! Bunnies can learn about walruses, who are very interesting animals. Here is a website with fun walrus facts, from a zoo and aquarium in Tacoma, Washington.

S: Yes, that is a neat website, Caramel. So the book was interesting then?

C: Yes. I learned about walruses because I looked them up, and also pillows are cool but you can have too many.

S: I think that is a good summary of the book, Caramel. And just like Winnie, we realize that we can share if we have more than we need. We do not have to hoard things, even if we love them.

C: Yeah, I guess, we could say sharing is caring, and all that good stuff.

S: Yes, it is good stuff! Okay, this might be a good place to wrap up our review.

C: Why not?

S: What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Winnie's Pile of Pillows: Making Room for the Things You Love Most, written by Dana K. White and illustrated by Sarah Jennings and finding out that all walruses have tusks and other people love pillows too. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Winnie’s Pile of Pillows: Making Room for the Things You Love Most*, written by Dana K. White and illustrated by Sarah Jennings and finding out that all walruses have tusks and other people love pillows too.

Caramel reviews Redshirts by John Scalzi

Today Caramel reviews Redshirts, a book by John Scalzi first published in 2012. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: Today we are talking about a space story, right?

Caramel: Yes, today we are talking about Redshirts, which is a story that is in a Star Trek-like universe. The book never comes out and says Star Trek of course, but you know it.

S: True. Even the title is a throwback to Star Trek. Redshirts are the ensigns and other members of the crew who wear red uniforms, and if you watch enough Star Trek episodes, at some point it becomes clear that whenever a team goes down to a planet with some of the main characters and a few crew members wearing red, the dangers in the planet would kill off at least one of those redshirts.

C: Yes. The book is really about that. The main character is this guy named Andrew Dahl and he is himself a redshirt. He joins the Universal Union, which is like the Federation in Star Trek, and is serving on the flagship. He realizes at some point that his friends keep dying. But none of the main crew dies. So the redshirts start getting suspicious.

S: I think that is a really smart plotline.

C: Yes, I think so too. But it gets even better. They realize that they do not really have memories beyond the ship they are on and so on, and they eventually discover that there is a real weird reason for everything.

S: Yep!

C: But I am not telling. I think it would be a big spoiler.

Caramel is reading Redshirts by John Scalzi. — Caramel is reading *Redshirts* by John Scalzi.

S: Yes, you do have a point there. Okay, so let us stop talking about the plot then and begin to talk about other things about the book. Actually I read Redshirts first and could not stop myself from laughing all the time. I thought you would enjoy it, too. Was I right?

C: Yeah, it was pretty good. I laughed a lot, too.

S: I also found the plot twists pretty neat.

C: Yeah, me too. But again, no spoilers! And I kind of guessed some of them.

S: Good for you! I did not. But you and Marshmallow are getting pretty good at guessing narrative arcs.

C: Well, we do read a lot of books.

S: That’s true.

C: Yeah, so the book starts out with a guy on an away mission, for lack of a better term, and he is eaten by land worms, I have no idea what those could possibly be. But they sound just about right for the kind of weird monsters that appeared in the original Star Trek series. And so we immediately get some action and some weirdness, and it is all fun from that point on.

S: I mean, I guess a lot of redshirts did die, I think, and death is not really funny, if you think about it, but in the storyline they were all quite absurd, and you could not help but laugh.

C: Yeah, the setups of the away missions were all weirdly amusing, but the actual plot of the book was awesome. Kind of mind-boggling and mind-twisting, but also funny. And awesome!

S: I am so glad you enjoyed it. But I am wondering. Do you think someone would still enjoy this book if they did not watch any Star Trek?

C: Yes, yes, the plot can still stand alone, but knowing Star Trek sort of just makes it better.

S: I think I agree. For a Star Trek fan like me, there were a lot of inside jokes, but if you are not a Trekkie like me,,I think it is still a great read. Lots of fun and also some things to think about after you are done.

C: Yep.

S: Okay Caramel. I think this might be a good time to wrap up this review.

C: Sure. Let’s do that.

S: What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Redshirts by John Scalzi and recommends it to all bunnies looking for some funny space stories. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Redshirts* by John Scalzi and recommends it to all bunnies looking for some funny space stories.

Caramel reviews Talons of Power: The Graphic Novel (Book Nine of Wings of Fire) by Tui Sutherland and Mike Holmes

Caramel reviews the graphic novel version of Talons of Power, the ninth book of the Wings of Fire series, by Tui Sutherland and Mike Holmes.

After waiting for it for over three years, Caramel was able to read and review book sixteen of Tui Sutherland’s Wings of Fire series last week. This made him realize that he had not yet reviewed the graphic novel adaptation of book nine, Talons of Power, which had come out in December 2025. He now talks to Sprinkles about this book below.

Caramel reviews Talons of Power: The Graphic Novel (Book Nine of Wings of Fire), written by Tui Sutherland and illustrated by Mike Holmes. — Caramel reviews *Talons of Power: The Graphic Novel* (Book Nine of Wings of Fire), written by Tui Sutherland and illustrated by Mike Holmes.

Sprinkles: Today we are talking about the graphic novel version of Book Nine of the Wings of Fire series. Right, Caramel?

Caramel: Yes, technically we could have talked about this before the sixteenth book, but we forgot to review, but I’m happy I got my paws on this book.

S: Yes, this came out at the end of 2025, and you read it all the way back then, but then we had a couple other books you were planning to review, and then we took January off, and then we basically forgot.

C: Yeah, we should have reviewed it earlier, but at least we remembered.

S: You had read and reviewed the original version of the ninth book before. And you loved that book.

C: Yeah, and I love this one too, it’s awesome.

S: So if I recall correctly this one has Turtle as the main character.

C: Yeah, Turtle is a self-proclaimed coward, but he’s also among the strongest characters in Wings of Fire, because he’s an animus, just like his sister, Anemone. That means he has magic.

S: Ooh, cool! I think you had mentioned that in your review of the original book. You also had used “treacherous”, “revelation”, and “reluctant hero” to describe the book and its themes.

C: Yeah, so he sort of has to save the day from Darkstalker, but he’s a scaredy cat so he sort of doesn’t want to.

S: So there is a lot of his internal struggle in the original book, I think. How does all that internal struggle work out in the graphic novel format?

C: Well. It works out well.

S: So you enjoyed reading this book, then.

C: Yeah, it was very fun to read, and like the other graphic novels, the art was very cool and colorful.

S: It is after all the same art team, led by Mike Holmes who drew them and Maarta Laiho who worked on the colors. I am glad you liked the art.

C: Well, that explains why it was so good.

S: Yes. And looking through the book I am quite impressed by how the faces of the dragons are so expressive, I mean dragons are lizard-like creatures, it is hard to create expressions for them without making them look too human- or bunny-like. The artist does a great job with that.

C: Yeah, the art is very expressive.

Caramel is reading Talons of Power: The Graphic Novel (Book Nine of Wings of Fire), written by Tui Sutherland and illustrated by Mike Holmes. — Caramel is reading *Talons of Power: The Graphic Novel* (Book Nine of Wings of Fire), written by Tui Sutherland and illustrated by Mike Holmes.

S: Did reading this graphic novel make you want to go back to the original book and read that one again?

C: Yeah, so I did, though I probably would have done that anyways.

S: That’s true. I know how you like to go back and reread your favorites over and over again. That is something I never do with my books, but I know both you and Marshmallow love doing it.

C: Yeah, you’re weird for not rereading. I know Midnight also likes to reread.

S: Yeah, I mean I can see the appeal of reading a good book, you know it is good, and sometimes it is like you are reconnecting with old friends, and sometimes you probably catch things you might have missed in your first reading, and so on. Do you think you like rereading because of any of these reasons?

C: No, I just like rereading my favorite books.

S: And I like discovering new books, and there are so many books out there! I know I won’t be able to read all the books I want to read in one lifetime, so I often do not want to reread. I guess we are kind of different that way.

C: True, I guess we like different things about books, but let’s get back to this book.

S: Good idea Caramel. Thanks for redirecting us and getting us to focus. So what do you wish to add about the book?

C: It contains all the important things from the original book. You always want to know if the graphic novel version of a book is missing anything. So no, the graphic novel version has pretty much everything one needs to move to the next book.

S: That is neat. And good to know. So this might be a good time to wrap up this review.

C: Sure. Sounds good.

S: What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel loved reading Talons of Power: The Graphic Novel (Book Nine of Wings of Fire), written by Tui Sutherland and illustrated by Mike Holmes and is excited to have many more Wings of Fire books to read these days. — Caramel loved reading *Talons of Power: The Graphic Novel* (Book Nine of Wings of Fire), written by Tui Sutherland and illustrated by Mike Holmes and is excited to have many more Wings of Fire books to read these days.