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mldavisreads's review
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
3.75
Middle grade graphic novel, adventure/mystery. A young boy named Nang is king of the imaginary country of west Rhutar, near Korea and Japan. He inherited the throne after his parents passed away. Across the world, Joseph won an essay contest about his student ambassador experience to Australia. As a reward he gets to go to DC and meet the President. When Joseph successfully uses his peacemaking skills to figure out a situation with the Canadian Prime Minister, the President selects him to go to West Rhutar. The adult diplomats are having trouble working with King Nang, and are afraid he will take his country to war with neighboring East Rhutar. Joseph immediately finds King Nang to be a spoiled brat. But when a sleepover turns into an attack on the palace, it's up to Joseph and Nang to get to the bottom of it. After escaping the palace, they have to figure out who was behind the attack and why. And then they have to navigate Korea in order to get back home safely.
This was an interesting story with lots of action. There were also threads about treating people with kindness and understanding the other side. A subplot of the story involves the boys using knowledge gained from reading Korean comics to actually understand written and spoken Korean. While a bit farfetched, it was nice to see language learning acknowledged and there was further information on the strategies used in the backmatter. This looks to be the first in a series.
This was an interesting story with lots of action. There were also threads about treating people with kindness and understanding the other side. A subplot of the story involves the boys using knowledge gained from reading Korean comics to actually understand written and spoken Korean. While a bit farfetched, it was nice to see language learning acknowledged and there was further information on the strategies used in the backmatter. This looks to be the first in a series.
raethereviewer's review
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Trigger Warnings: Death of parents, kidnapping, mention of war
Representation: half Mexican MC, Asian side characters, Korean language
I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The Good
Student Ambassador: The Missing Dragon is my first ever granted wish on Netgalley and I’m so happy I got to read it. It’s funny, witty, and really diverse.
The story is action-packed, which is perfect for Middle Grade. It’s definitely the kind of book that will keep kids on their toes as they read it.
The characters and settings are really diverse. Joseph, the main character, is half Mexican. Joseph and Nang travel through Korea and Japan. There’s even a section where Joseph teaches Nang how to read Korean because Joseph’s babysitter is Korean and she taught him.
The humor in this story was great. I found myself laughing out loud several times. It’s such an out-there and ridiculous story in all the best ways, which makes it even more perfect for Middle Grade readers.
The Not so Good
Honestly, there wasn’t a single miss for me in this story. It’s told so well and the illustrations go with it perfectly.
All in All
I’m so happy my wish was granted. I’m going to buy a copy of this story for my cousins because they love action-adventure books and this is one I could definitely see them reading in a day.
Wanna get it for yourself? Try using my Bookshop affiliate link! If you use my link, the price won’t go up but I will get a small percentage of the sale and that’s one way you can support me and this blog.
https://educatednegra.blog/
avalinahsbooks's review
4.0
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
Student Ambassador – The Missing Dragon was a lovely graphic novel. The story has such a wonderful message –that if we all tried to be ambassadors to everyone we meet – tried to represent our country, our workplace, even our family to them, and tried our hardest at it, the world would be a better place.
There is a lot of stuff about South Korea here and there’s even some stuff on how you learn to read Korean, which may get the reader interested in learning it! In fact, the story is very, very loosely based on the two separated Koreas – and how it would be nice if they joined again.
The student ambassador meets a very selfish boy-king of an imaginary country, which incidentally also happens to be broken into two countries of the same ethnic origins, just like North and South Korea, and is quite close to them. But the comic isn’t political – it’s more about being selfish and learning to be better about it. It doesn’t poke you in the fact with moral righteousness, though – it’s just naturally presented through how the two kids interact, one of them being nice and getting his way through kindness or just cunning, and the other always taking what isn’t his and being incredibly entitled, because he is a king, after all.
The comic is also fun to read because it’s got a good, dynamic pace and the illustrations are really cool too. So I enjoyed reading this.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
Student Ambassador – The Missing Dragon was a lovely graphic novel. The story has such a wonderful message –that if we all tried to be ambassadors to everyone we meet – tried to represent our country, our workplace, even our family to them, and tried our hardest at it, the world would be a better place.
There is a lot of stuff about South Korea here and there’s even some stuff on how you learn to read Korean, which may get the reader interested in learning it! In fact, the story is very, very loosely based on the two separated Koreas – and how it would be nice if they joined again.
The student ambassador meets a very selfish boy-king of an imaginary country, which incidentally also happens to be broken into two countries of the same ethnic origins, just like North and South Korea, and is quite close to them. But the comic isn’t political – it’s more about being selfish and learning to be better about it. It doesn’t poke you in the fact with moral righteousness, though – it’s just naturally presented through how the two kids interact, one of them being nice and getting his way through kindness or just cunning, and the other always taking what isn’t his and being incredibly entitled, because he is a king, after all.
The comic is also fun to read because it’s got a good, dynamic pace and the illustrations are really cool too. So I enjoyed reading this.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
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