Pocket Peaches - Dora Wang - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Dora Wang

GENRE: MG Graphic Novel

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A beginner-level graphic novel that ought to work well for a really young audience. A sweet story, but too simple to keep slightly older kids interested.

Story Synopsis: 

Peaches and her friends Mango and Pogi all live in a place named Pocketon. When a new cat named Taro moves into their neighbourhood, Peaches is determined to befriend her. But Taro likes horror movies and scary books, while Peaches is more of a cute and sweet movie lover. Will they be able to be friends with such differences?

The story is certainly sweet. Verrrry sweet. Okay, it is at a diabetes-inducing level of sweetness! Peaches and her friends are all endearing, but their saccharine levels were off the charts. Even when they were watching a horror movie, their cuteness doesn’t diminish. This probably makes the book perfect for little readers but it also limits its scope to an older audience.

There is not much of a backstory to the friendship of the characters or to the place they live in, which seems home to a variety of anthropomorphic animals. A part of me wondered if I had missed the first book of this series but no: this was the very first one. A Google search revealed that the characters are from the Instagram account @pocket.peaches. As always, I am totally blank about all things Insta, so this book was my first ever glimpse of the characters. That was probably why I felt like I didn’t get to know them at all.

The writing is quite basic. I was hoping for a little more intricate story, but the book kept all aspects at the beginner level as promised, without much substance to the plot or depth to the characters. The message is good though, talking about how lying about your tastes isn’t the right way to make new friends. I also loved how no one in the book judges Peaches for being scared of horror movies. It is a nice lesson about how an inclusive and accepting friendship should work.

The kawaii-style illustrations are perfect for the story, with charming sketches in bright rainbow colours. The book uses a dyslexia-friendly font, which is certainly an advantage.

I can see this book working for the younger age group, say 5-8 years, who are just beginning their graphic novel journey. Older kids might not find it that engrossing, though the discussion about the right ratio for cupcake frosting would be quite interesting to them.

All in all, recommended to the target age group. Kids who love stuff like ‘My Little Pony’ will lap up this cute graphic novel. I am not sure if this is part of a planned series, but this book works nicely as a standalone.

I would have rated this higher had my kids enjoyed this book, but they too found it an okayish one-time read.

My thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and Edelweiss+ for the DRC of “Pocket Peaches”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.