Cici's Journal: Lost and Found by Joris Chamblain and Aurelie Neyret

Summary from Goodreads:

Everyone has secrets, but no one can hide them from Cici!

As a future writer, Cici knows what questions to ask and where to find the clues she needs to unlock peoples’ hearts. Yet even though Cici is great at helping others, for a long time now she has kept a dark and painful secret hidden inside herself.

Cici’s friends and mom all want to help her heal, but she keeps pushing them away. Can a treasure hunt, a mysterious mansion, and an epic beachside fight help her to open up at last?

Review:

I loved this. I didn’t know there would be a book 2, though I had hoped. I was surprised and thankful for this book when it came across my radar not that long ago. I remember being so charmed and in awe of the artwork of book 1. This book was the same.

However, where the first book was borderline fluffy and endearing, this one was a little bit deeper. Cici was a little older and more capable of understanding and handling her emotions. As much of this book was about solving a mystery (almost Nancy Drew style), the rest was about Cici coming to terms with her past and how she was feeling. There was this whole emotional element of this book I was not expecting, a past that involves trauma. At first, I was actually a little annoyed by this. It took me out of the story that I was so engrossed in. But, then, I loved it. It made me love Cici and the other characters that much more.

Besides the deeper story and stronger character arcs, there’s the stunning artwork I fell in love with from the beginning. It’s just gorgeous. Even my husband noted it while I was reading it. And it’s not every Children’s graphic novel that I read that he will comment on, but I think he might actually pick this one up at some point. It’s filled with the standard graphic novel panels, but also, journal entries, illustrations, and author’s notes because Cici want’s to be a writer. The layout is fun. But the art itself is just really good. It looks like the artist could design video games or Pixar movies.

One of the stories involves Cici and her mother going to a tourist destinations that’s literally a murder mystery mansion at sea! There’s also a mystery involving hidden notes and a scavenger hunt that begins in a bookbinder shop. I mean come on…This book is amazing. There’s little nods to book 1 and the zoo. There’s great messages of friendship. I love the family dynamic between Cici and her mother and everything they work through together. And when it ends, I just want more. I could have read 4 more of these books and kept going. I hope these keep going. I give this a 9/10.