Merry Meerkat Marginalia

Overall rating: I’ve just averaged my scores from each little individual story which would be 3 ½ stars. But I think I’ll round up to 4 Stars since the parts between each story where fun and nicely drawn.

Netgalley Review.

First Impression: SSOOO CUUUTTEEE!!

I haven’t read any of the Mouse Guard series yet so this is my first introduction.  I totally jumped at the chance when I saw this was available on Netgalley.

The premise of the collection of stories is that a mouse is owed money by various other mice.  And she’s holding a competition. Whomever tells the best story has their debts forgiven. My only complaint, is that I’m having a little bit of a hard time telling the mice apart.

Autumn Tale- I really like the art, looks like it’s done in watercolor. Love the coloring. It’s the story of house a certain mouse gets sick.  5 Stars

Leviathian- Not sure how it’s drawn. Charcoal and pencil maybe? Either way, it’s really pretty. This story reminds me of the Brian Jacques series, Redwall. 4 Stars

Lily and Pearls Have a Bone to Pick-  Little lame but the art is cute. 3.5 Stars

Love of the Sea- Cute, no text story of mice/mermaids. 3 Stars

Over the Falls- Done in color pencils, this is very cute. 4 Stars

The Shade- Love the art and coloring. However the story confused the crap out of me. 3 Stars

The Mouse Generals-Great story, great art. 4 Stars

When moles are around- Really cute story (but average art) about a mouse and a mole who are friends. 3.5 Stars

The Thief, the Stargazer, the Hunter and the Tailor- So far, my favorite of the stories. The art is amazing and the story simple, traditional and beautiful. 5 Stars

The Veteran- This one appears to be written by the guy who writes Fables. Art is really nice. The story only ok. 3.5 Stars

Back and Forth- Love the art, but can’t tell what medium was used. Not that it matters, just curious. Story good. 4 Stars

The Timber Mice- Cute that it is sheet music. I like the art but found the text under the music hard to read so I didn’t read it because I can only really read netgallyey graphic novels on my iphone. Giving this one a 3.5 stars

Side note: I didn't realize there was an epilogue until after I had finished my review. But because I'm participating in the big Harry Potter Group read starting next week, I'm not going to have time to read the epilogue on this.