This graphic novel is very cute! My 7-year old liked the diversity of characters and settings, he found the story exciting! The Zebra bursting into song throughout was one of his favorite parts. He may be a little young for it because the story is long and he needed a break halfway through. I would definitely recommend this for kids who enjoy graphic novels!

I am grateful to have received an e-ARC of this book through NetGalley.

Going into this book I knew what I was getting myself into. It's a childrens book, and in my opinion a phenominal one! It has pretty illustrations, beautiful colours, lovable characters, a great plot and story line and good values for kids.

I was looking for a quick read and something to motivate me and I absolutely got what I was looking for. If I had a child or child in my life I would gift them this book for sure.

I really don't have much to say about this book besides that. It's cute, it's fun and exactely what I would want if I'm looking for a cute childrens graphic novel.

I have never strayed away from campy stuff, including the stuff that looks like how a child would imagine what a missing pet would do. This has all of the tropes from a Battlestar Galactica cast with a kind of childhood innocence. Not a great read, but maybe something kids will listen to once.

**Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader's copy of Star Beasts by Stephanie Young through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.

Star Beasts by Stephanie Young is a childrens/middle grade science fiction graphic novel.  It features a cast of animal characters whose task is to protect the Earth from dangerous interstellar threats.  It is set to be published on August 17th, 2021.  I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads.


Here is the summary from Goodreads:

A cosmic mix of laughs, loyalty, and adventure, Star Beasts is ideal for fans of Zootopia, Mouse Guard, and Tiny Titans. 
Wanna know the real reason Pluto isn’t a planet anymore?
Bandit is a pup on Earth who leaves his family to join the secret order of the Star Beasts – cosmic creatures sworn to protect Earth and spread goodness throughout the universe. Only thing is, he's having trouble fitting in. But when powerful relics are suddenly stolen, the Star Beasts must band together to find the deadly galactic fossils before Pluto’s evil emperor, Khaos Krill – he wants to build the Novataur, an ancient monster that could wipe out all of Earth’s species!
Captain Bandit leads the crew on a kick-asteroid space race to collect all the relics. Flashtista, the warrior turtle, Clio, the goldfish historian, Karma, the healing tiger, Pep, the techie iguana, and the rest of Star Beasts risk their lives to learn that true family is never really lost and that protecting love is the greatest duty of all.

This is such a cute graphic novel.  I loved the premise of animals from Earth being recruited to help fight against interstellar threats.  Bandit, our protagonist, is a dog who had to leave his human family behind in order to help keep the world safe.  He's an interesting and enthusiastic character.  I really enjoyed all of the characters.  They all had their different strengths and weaknesses.  

The setting was really well done and creative.  I liked all the different planets and how I didn't know what to expect when it came to the various areas that our heroes explored.  I liked the comparison of Earth and the other worlds.  Pluto was an interesting setting as well.  The different species from that planet was interesting, and their motivation for wanting to destroy the Earth made a lot of sense.

I loved the art in this graphic novel.  It was full colour and absolutely beautiful.  The animals were all very distinct, and I really was able to understand what was going on.

I felt suspense and excitement as I read the story.  I didn't know what was going to happen next and it really kept me guessing.  I enjoyed the twists.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and recommend that you check it out.

Kaley (7) read this one - "I like at the end that there was hugging. I liked the parts where they helped each other, that was nice. I liked when he said and the guardian of all the creatures. The sparks and the colours all look pretty together. My favourite characters are the sloth that they found, Bandit the dog and the Jackelope. It was a really cool graphic novel"

She read this one so quickly and really loved it. 5 stars from her.

This was a very sweet graphic novel! I love the concept of the story. the art style is very captivating with the use of bright colours. I over all really enjoyed my time reading it! a great graphic novel for kids!

This is an absolutely beautiful story of friendship and adventure. The illustrations and colours are stunning. The story is super engaging and fast paced. All of the different planets and their creatures were fascinating and the action scenes were really entertaining! A thoroughly enjoyable read and the ending made me gasp, I loved that final scene so much!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Oni Press for my chance to read an advanced ebook copy of this graphic novel!

This was so wholesome! Bandit and the gang were absolutely adorable and I adored them so much.

There were some moments throughout that made me emotional and the cute moments throughout as well just grabbed my heart.

Also, that ending had absolutely no right to hit me in the feels the way it did! I genuinely did love this and would love to get more from this wonderful gang of animals.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange of an honest review.

Thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Star Beasts by Stephanie Young an adorable adventure for children starring a space force of animals. When I saw that the description compared this graphic novel to Zootopia and Tiny Titans, I knew that I had to read this immediately. Zootopia was one of my favorite movies, and Tiny Titans was one of my favorite comics when I was growing up. After reading this graphic novel, I have to say that the comparisons hold up. The plot revolves around anthropomorphic animals with jobs, just like Zootopia. Also, the art style is colorful and explodes on the page, just like Tiny Titans.

Overall, Star Beasts is a colorful, exciting graphic novel for children that will appeal to fans of Zootopia and Tiny Titans. In addition, I would compare this graphic novel to Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy for children. The animals work on a spaceship and protect the galaxy from extraterrestrial threats from other planets. I think many children will enjoy reading this graphic novel, and I can envision this becoming the next bestseller. If you're intrigued by the description above or if you're looking for a graphic novel for your child, you won't regret checking out this book when it comes out in July!

I received an electronic ARC from Papercutz.
Fun story set in space. Bandit leaves his life as a pet dog to become a captain in the Star Beasts organization. Together with his team, he travels the universe to save the relic bones and keep the Krill from destroying all human life on earth. Readers see the action and adventures along with the danger as they travel from planet to planet. They also see characters reveal more about themselves and their relationships with others.
The dialogue is easy to follow and upper elementary readers will love the detailed illustrations and action. A high energy read.

This graphic novel follows the adventures of Bandit (a dog) captain of the Star Beasts. When the graphic novel begins Bandit. has left his loving owner to protect the world. Bandit leads a group of colorful characters and fights lots of space enemies. It is a cute premise and definitely lends itself to lots of story lines and humor.

The colors and panels were great. Unfortunately, the story just didn't seem to capture my 9 year old's attention and hold it. The plot jumped around a bit too much. I think if she were older, it might have been a bigger hit. We will try again in a year or two.

Star Beasts is a highly imaginative book for young readers transitioning into reading more. The artwork is really pretty and colourful!

Wacky, funny animal adventure for the 6-8 year old. For the older crowd, it reminded me of the movie "Galaxy Quest" but your kid should love it if they like Hilda and other a little off kilter works.

I’ve read a lot of kids graphic novels. The best of them are charming if brief diversion for an adult reader. This is not among the best of them. The story is rambling and reminds me of listening to child of say four or so babbling about the game they’ve made up and are playing. The right kid might enjoy it if very young and particularly fond of anything involving animals. There’s just better kids graphic novels out there and since the cover is cute and the description sounds fun it was disappointing.

Thanks Netgalley and Oni Press for giving me a chance to read the whole book!

Well I never thought that ending was gonna be unexpected with showing the little girl taking away the baby sloth instead of Bandit like I have tons of questions about that bro lol! Anyways I thought the whole story was alright enough like it was cute, colourful and the Bandit character was interesting with how he transitioned from a normal dog to a “Captain Kirk” type on a space ship. However the whole story was a hit or a miss, one minute you get a few chuckles on what the characters say and the next, you don’t know wtf is going on since it does have rushed moments.

Would I suggest this to kids reading it? Sure if they are able to understand it and like animals. I mean again it is cute, but it just felt rushed to me..

A simple, fun adventure book for any kid who is a fan of animals, space adventures, or both. A dog from Earth is the captain of a space-faring crew of animals who fight to protect the galaxy and Earth. There were a lot of fun characters, like the grumpy scientist sheep, the cute baby sloth, and the commander unicorn. The fact that, out of all animals, krill were the main antagonists, was certainly an unexpected and original idea. Overall, younger readers should have a good time with this book.

Young readers are sure to fall head-over-heels in puppy love with playful animal-filled space opera for early middle-grade readers.

I really enjoyed star beasts, it’s graphics are amazing and it’s easy to follow in its layout (not always the case when using an iPad to read on). The story is fun, lots of humour and is really light hearted. You can definitely tell it’s aimed at children but never the less I really enjoyed it and I think a lot of children would too. I would be interested to see if the author will create a series of them and if so I think a little more adventure would be great, the story could have been stretched if wanted however as it’s aimed at children I understand why they kept it simple.
I would read the next instalment if there end up being one.

Star Beasts is a fun and imaginative book for young readers and transitional readers. Vivid imagery, humor, action and adventure — an exploration of two parallel comics worlds and an explosion of creativity.

Rather the incoherent mess, I'm afraid, this has a humble Earth-based dog become reluctant space-ship captain for some Guardians of the Galaxy, Green Lantern kind of idea. He's just had a bit of a 'mare with the Crocodiles of Somewhere, who we knew as good friends with Earth, but now it's worse – the Krill on Pluto are miffed to find they're actually on a dwarf planet and not a real one that they've ganged up with the Crocs against us. Cue singing zebras, antsy scientist sheep, a goldfish in a floating bowl... Now any oddball story can be set anywhere, but when it is one like this, with so many in-universe terms, dodgy names for places and characters (I kept reading one as "Flash Titsa") and sheer incoherent weirdness when coherent weirdness would have been fine, I don't think it's nearly as friendly enough for the target audience. Yes, it's pell-mell action, and the Saturday morning cartoon vibe of the artwork is spot-on, but boy, rein in on the quirk next time, please.