I requested this the second I saw it and was very excited to be able to read it despite being much older than the target demographic. I loved the first book and the charming, detailed illustrations. I am pretty sure this is a prequal, even though it has been over a year since I read the first one, and it is wonderful to see a few of the beloved characters again as well as many new ones. The grumpy and inquisitive tea dragons are there as well. The main character is Rinn who is learning to cook and loves to forage in the forest. On one such trip, she finds a sleeping dragon and invites him back to the village as the village prepares for a festival. I love the tea dragons and deeply want one. Otherwise, I recommend this to anyone regardless of age for its charming story and the illustrations of a beautiful, magical world.

That artwork is spectacularly beautiful, I couldn't get over it. I'm hoping Katie O'Neill creates some more graphic novels very soon!
I was so pleased with how diverse and inclusive the cast of characters were. It was a very cute and fun story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Tea Dragon Festival is a companion story to the beautiful The Tea Dragon Society and let me assure that this volume is as stunning as the first one. The colors are gorgeous and the illustrations are to die for. This story is set before the events of The Tea Dragon Society since we can see a much younger Hesekiel and Erik. I also loved the new characters that were introduced in this story.

Aedhan is a dragon, a real one, and can shift forms and so become human. It was very nice to learn more about dragons in general and not only about tea dragons, the lovely creatures that were the focus of the first volume.
I loved how in the end everyone helped with tea leaves so that Aedhan could experience the memories of the past 80 years and see what he missed while he was asleep. It was such a thoughtful gesture. I’m really happy that he found Rinn and also a place that he can finally call home.

In this book characters use both American sign language and voice to communicate and I thought it was such a nice addition to this volume, it was well explained at the beginning of the book and there were different-colored texts so that the reader could understand what language the characters were speaking.

If you liked The Tea Dragon Society, you’ll love this one!

I didn't think this graphic novel would live up to the beauty and enchantment of The Tea Dragon society but it did! Once again Kate O'Neill has created a tale of magic, humor, marvelous well-rounded characters, diverse beings, and mystery also this time! I'd love to live in her idealistic small-town communities (and drink tea dragon leaves).

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this comic!

Title: The Tea Dragon Festival
Author: Katie O'Neill
Rating: 5 stars

I am a huge fan of Katie O'Neill's work, this is the 3rd comic I have read by this author now and I loved it! After reading "The Tea Dragon Society" earlier this year and also rating it 5 stars, I have been eagerly anticipating this new novel, so when I saw it on NetGalley I was over the moon! This is a prequel to the first book and I would say you can definitely read this as a standalone, but I also highly recommend the previous book too!

The illustrations and colours were so beautiful. The story and characters so effortlessly diverse, it was a very lovely read. I honestly didn't want it to end!

One of the things that I absolutely loved was the use of sign language throughout the comic. In the beginning, there is a short introduction on how to identify when the characters are using ASL. The whole village learned after one of the residents was born deaf. There are also lots of resources at the end about sign language.

Overall, I loved it! I won't hesitate to pick up more work by this author.
Review to be posted on my blog, closer to the release date.