This was a very sweet tale about friendship and rekindling lost traditions. I thought the art style was very pretty and I adored how the sprites all had the appearance of the flowers they were named after!

Star Rating: —> 4.5 Stars

Reading this was an absolute JOY! It had me enchanted from page one ! It's a quick read with a wonderful message about friendship. Readers of all ages will absolutely adore this graphic novel!

A wonderful sprite starts helping a human girl to grow her garden, which is in hopes to please his sick mother, who is too ill to tend to a garden anymore.

Such incredible, fantastical, unique, BEAUTIFUL little story & absolutely gorgeous, whimsical art! I absolutely cannot wait to read more works by this author.

Thank you to Oni Press via NetGalley for providing me with the ARC! This in no way affects my rating or review.

Anyone who adored the magic, whimsy, and heartfelt tone of "The Tea Dragon Society" will love this! It has the same sweet, wholesome feel in its storytelling and art, accompanied by a lovely over-aching message. The art is beyond stunning, and I can't wait to own it physically to revisit the beautiful landscapes.

Ugh, uh. What am I supposed to say? This was some almost 90 pages of beautiful, cheerful art, but there's not much story there. Or rather, it's so simple, you don't feel much while reading it.

Maybe kids would appreciate it more, but I've read way better - more engaging - stories, even for the young audience. Shame, as the art was truly stunning, but this is simply forgettable.

Sprite and the Gardener is a heartwarming, adorable story. It's set in a world where sprites used to take care of gardening, but now that humans moved in and maintain their own yards, sprites have become obsolete. However, Wisteria, a sprite new to town, discovers a love for gardening after asking questions about the way things used to be and questioning how they are now.

The soft coloring and unique, whimsical art style were perfect for the tone of this book. The sprites (and humans!) were diverse and very expressive, even when they were drawn small! I love a gentle nature fantasy, and this delivered on every level. I was expecting this to be a story where humans moved in and ruined everything, but I was surprised to see that only the sprites were affected, not nature in general. Of course, I don't hate themes of humans damaging the earth and needing to change, since that's the reality we live in and it does need to change, but it was refreshing to see humans portrayed as creators and caretakers! The ending was heartwarming and sweet, and I can't wait to see more from both the artist and the author.

Did I presume that a book titled "Sprite and the Gardener" would be a romance? Just a Bit... Was it? No?

I had so many different feelings while reading this, about possible underlying messages and wondering about flower types. But to cover all the things would be too much.

This book felt like it encapsulated the feelings I'd get while I was sitting on the rug while the teacher read books to us. It was so much like consuming a book when I was small; I found myself giggling and grinning from ear to ear. I don't think any book has touched those feelings in a long time. Suppose you need a bit of hope in your life, a look back to simpler times. This is it!

The art is gorgeous; the characters are so diverse. I don't think I had really seen a plus-sized Sprite/Fairy until I read this book. Growing up watching shows like Winx Club and Tinker Bell, I was overjoyed to see Sprites that everyone could identify with. Also, they are all charming.


On a slightly separate note: This book, at its core, is not letting an old form of art disappear, it made me think so much of the exchange of arts that I see on TikTok. Helping to spread the knowledge to help ensure that it doesn't disappear.

Sprite and the Gardener was such a sweet little graphic novel. The illustrations were beautiful and the story had great themes of teamwork and friendship. I would’ve liked a little more depth to the story but I’m hoping for a sequel!

I remember reading a small comic a few years ago about a little sprite and the gardener she was in love with and helped make her garden beautiful ("the most beautiful garden in town is the work of a fairy who loves the gardener's smile"). This is the graphic novel that sprouted from that little comic.
I absolutely adored this little graphic novel, it was so cute and delightful.

The Sprite and The Gardener is a wonderfully gentle graphic novel about the magic of sprites living between the plants of your garden.

Reminiscent of a fairy tale, we are introduced to a group of colourful sprites who live in gardens but no longer have to take care of them, as humans have taken up that role. Wisteria, the new sprite, comes in contact with a young gardener trying to make their garden beautiful and tries to secretly help them. The story itself wasn't the most groundbreaking or original, although it's obvious that wasn't the goal of the graphic novel. The art made the story what it is. Inspired by old fairytale art, it's filled with vibrant colours that bring the whole story to life.

This dreamy, lighthearted read is something you would marvel at with your little sister. The whimsical story reads rather quickly and the values of friendship, unity and nature are beautifully shown.

I'd like to thank Oni Press for providing this copy via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This was such a charming comic with beautiful illustrations. It would be well-suited to a younger audience and contains themes of teamwork and friendship. It was sweet, but there wasn't much depth to the plot and little to no conflict to make things interesting or drive any character development.

A beautifully drawn tale of love and gardening, The Sprite and the Gardener combined lovely heart with light story to create an all around lovely reading experience. Though relatively short and lacking any substantial stakes, this book still captivated me and made it quite easy for me to binge read the entire novel in one sitting. If you love light, stress-free graphic novels that are sure to teleport you away from the stress of the world, this book's for you!

Gardens are full of tiny fairy-like sprites, who used to take care of nature, helped it grow. More recently they have taken early retirement because humans came along, taking care of their gardens.

In this book, one little sprite called Wisteria decides to do some work on a seemingly abandoned, overgrown garden, only to find a young girl who has come to clean the garden up. So Wisteria starts helping her in secret. If you think that secret won't last, well goshdarn, you might just be right!

The art is beautiful, although I'm not a huge fan of the manga-like faces. The colouring especially is a sight to behold. The story is okay - it's sweet, it's nice, it won't blow you're socks off. It's probably aimed more at a young audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Sprite and the Gardener is scheduled for release on May 4th, 2021.

This graphic novel is a quick, wholesome read for all ages and I absolutely loved it!!! This story follows Wisteria, a sprite who is new to town in a time where the sprites, who used to be the sole caretakers of all flowers, plants and other flora on Earth, have given up that role since humans have begun tending to their own gardens. Wisteria decides that she doesn’t want to give up her relationship with plants so she finds a garden that needs her care. In doing so, Wisteria forms an unlikely friendship with Elena, a human, who is teaching herself how to garden. Together they learn the value of working together, asking for help, and building friendships.

This story is great if you’re in the mood for a light read, trying to get out of a reading slump, or you just want something that will make you smile. The artwork throughout is amazing and it really builds an excellent world that you can lose yourself in at any time. I highly recommend this book.

(Spoiler alert, together they also create a beautiful and flourishing garden 💜)

Read an ARC through NetGalley!

I remember seeing the original one page comic that inspired this and really thought it was sweet.

This graphic novel is about a new fairy in the area who ends up helping a young woman garden. They end up working together to make the backyard garden better. This in turn makes the other fairies want to help as well and end up making friends with others in the community to help the community bloom.

It ends up teaching others to ask for help as well as that it is okay to collaborate to make things work out.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eARC.

this was so cute!! i love manga so much with how absurd and most times predictable it is but somehow it manages to make it all entertaining! loved this a lot.

This was SUCH a cute graphic novel! I especially loved the art and all of the colors used in it. This was such a cute magical book about a sprite helping a gardener grow their mom's old garden. This would be such a cute little short movie too, I bet.

AAAAHHHH so cute and charming and I am fully, fully obsessed. A beautifully crafted tale full of lush art and incredible characters.

Adorable Thumbellina like comic for soul nurturing escape

“Sprite and the Gardener” by Joe Whitt and Rii Abrego is a beautiful, extremely cute and meditative comic book for young readers who love flowers. There is something very peaceful about those pages and the drawing are just beautiful, making anyone fall in love with the wonderful bloom.
In this story we follow Wisteria, a sprite who wants to reclaim the lost power of her people and grow a garden again when she sees how happy it makes a human teen. There is not much more to the story than that, but it is enough, in a way it says a lot, and it says nothing, it is a little slice of hope in a world that runs out of time for the important things: that is for real connections with others and with nature. The messages are simple, and at the same time very powerful.
The illustrations are absolutely stunning. They reminded me of the 1920s Art nouveau posters and glasswork and I really enjoyed them. There is the thick cursive lines of the time, with over flowy lines, and those muted slightly earthy tint to temper the vivid colours of the vegetation. The blooming flowers are lush and so are the cute sprites. This is really a pleasure for the eyes we don’t see often in pre-teen comics.
I loved the peacefulness and wholesomeness of the comic. This will not talk to readers in search of action or love stories. This is really like taking a walk in the park with close family as a way to just spend time with them, because you like being with them. This comic celebrates little feelings and how those are really what makes us happy in life. And I like that this message is oriented to a young crowd, not to the more mature audience that usually gets it because they already arrived to that conclusion.
I would really recommend this comic to people who enjoyed “The Secret World of Arrietty” by the Ghibli studio, or the novel “Toby Alone” by Timothée de Fombell. A fantastic work for all ages looking for a moment of wonder with no hard edges.

Sprite and the Gardener is very cute and heart-warming. And that is all. The story is very simple and I can imagine reading this when I'm upset and would need something to make me feel better. It is uplifting and and has a happy ending, so if this is something you seek, go for it.

For me, I felt like I needed something a little bit more. More to the story, or if the story is very simple like here I usually can enjoy the art but not in this case, I did not like the color combination used. But this is my personal opinion, everyone reacts to art differently and I'm sure many people will enjoy Sprite and the Gardener.

I thought this was such a cute graphic novel. I loved the art style, story, and characters of this novel. I love Wisteria as the main sprite who is new town and wanting to fit in with the others, but then she saw a human who was trying to grow a flower, but couldn't so Wisteria decided to help. Most sprites stopped using their powers with the earth after the humans came and took over. I also love how this story is about working together to make beautiful things.