The story of a little girl filled with anxiety about walking through the woods to go fly her kite. She is very scared of the monsters that live in the forest and when she enters they all come out to attack her. A wolf appears and scares them off and the two become friends. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book. The illustrations were excessively scary and the writing style was too advanced for a children's book. I understand that the author's intent was that the wolf represents her courage and when she has courage she doesn't need to be afraid of things that aren't there but I don't think that a child would be able to grasp these advanced concepts and would just find the book terrifying.

The Windy Day is a great story that discusses a young girl's fear of unseen monsters in the forest on the way to fly her kite. On her trek to fly the kite she is attacked by a Pirate Cloud of Goblins that rain down from the sky while trying to snatch her kite away. She see's a shadow: will it result in being saved or finished forever? Beautiful well done illustrations with sepia tones. A great book to discuss fears both real and imagined. I would purchase this title.

I found “The Windy Day” quite unusual for a children’s picture book, pervaded with a general disconnected feeling caused by the strange pairing of creepy, dark illustrations better fit for a much older audience and a bland, simplistic text which would likely fail to hit the mark with that same age category. Building on the simple premise of finding courage (or rather, courage finding you) in the face of danger, I can see how Tony tried to evoke the imaginative, hyperbolic world of a child, but the story seems a little lacking in both content and flow, perhaps partially lost in the translation process. I really feel that the author’s fantastical nightmarish style would really be better suited to a different audience and hope he continues to explore different genres and develop his unique style further.

Fun book with interesting illustrations! The font may be hard for younger readers to make out words but otherwise this is a different and dream-like book. Story is cute and theme of bravery is nice.

A little girl wants to fly her kite - only all kinds of dangers stand in her way! Loose chickens, dark woods, pirate clouds... her adventure is one you won't want to miss.

The illustrations in this book are absolutely fantastic, I love the whimsical style.
I am not totally sure what age group this book is aimed at however, as it is very short and simple but some of the pictures and images are pretty scary for a tiny one.
The story is a little odd and rambley, but I actually quite like that. It is different and a little funky.

I would recommend this book for slightly older kids than you might expect, perhaps 8 or 9 years old.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

High fantasy and lovely images combined for a wonderful read. This is one text I would gladly share with a wide range of readers.

Thank you to netgalley for a chance to read and review this book. The story is about a girl who wants to fly her kite but her imagination gets the better of her as she begins walking through the woods. She begins to feel scared being by herself because she feels like there are eyes watching her. She learns throughout the story that there is nothing out there that will hurt her. The story teaches our children courage and bravery, which are important lessons to learn. My son may sometimes become scared by the dark and woods, but teaching lessons through stories and illustrations have helped him develop a sort of bravery. The water color illustrations were beautiful..Due to the lessons, I would recommend this book for older children.

Cute short picture book that is best suited for older kids as I think it is a bit scary for the little ones. The illustration is quite nice, too. The theme of bravery is a nice touch, as well.

I received an electronic copy from Diamond Book Distributors through NetGalley.
Though I like the premise of this book, the story felt a little undecided as to what age group to reach. A young girl wants to fly her kite but is afraid to venture through the forest to get to the field. She decides to go anyway and ignores the "eyes" looking at her in the woods. Her imagination soars as goblins leap from the pirate cloud to the kite and down the string to surround her. The large creature from the woods rescues her and becomes her friend.
The message of staring down your fears and finding courage is there but does not come through clearly.
Could be used as a read aloud for parents or teachers to generate the discussion needed to understand the message.

A little girl is scared to fly her kite by herself because the way is through woods. And she thinks there are creatures or monsters, waiting for her. She fears just like every kid does until she finds a friend 'Courage'. Some illustrations are really great but some are bit difficult to understand.

Looking back I find this is the fourth book I've seen from the craft of Tony Sandoval, one of Mexico's prime comic creators. And it's the best – I've found reason to discredit him in the past for characters all looking the same, and for naively done voice-overs. But here, in the simple picture book format for the young with only one paragraph and a cameo picture opposite the relevant full-page image, none of those flaws apply. It's a gentle tale instead of a girl who only wants to fly a kite, but she first has to avoid the chickens running free in the yard, then whatever it is that is watching her from the darkness of the forest. But is that the end of the threat she faces in trying out her innocent hobby on this blustery trip away from home? It doesn't hammer home the message of finding bravery as heavily as more Western-minded books for the young, the watercolour art is really rather wonderful, and on the whole this is well worth considering.

This is a beautifully illustrated book. The writing, however, was a bit of a letdown for me. I don't usually enjoy reading to my girls books written in the first person, and in this case I think third person and actual dialogue ("hello" vs "she said hello to me") would have improved the reading enjoyment of this, especially for those reading out loud. I would recommend this for kids 6+ just because of some scary parts, including mentioning the eating of children cooked or raw. :) It would make a great classroom book for independent readers. Overall, I really was impressed by the illustration, which was both creepy (but not gory) and whimsical.

The illustrations for this book are charming watercolors and perfectly match the story. However, I feel the meandering storyline is a bit frightening for its audience as it seems to imply that everything outdoors is a danger, from the chickens, to the monsters in the forest, to the kite-snatching goblins in the sky. The book seems to characterize the world as a scary place where people are watched and/or stalked by creatures up to no good. I feel Sandoval tried to mitigate this by having the main character find an (imaginary?) ally who scares off the monsters and befriends the girl. She then decides that perhaps the forest isn't full of monsters, although the chickens are still scary. It's a cute and quirky book that might be of interest to some children, but I believe it's likely too scary to be a bedtime favorite.

*I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

“The Windy Day”, by Tony Sandoval, was a sweet, whimsical read, perfect for curious children on a lazy, windy afternoon. In the book, a young girl adventures into-and-past the woods to fly her kite on the windswept plains. During her little exploration, she stumbles upon an array of curious “monsters” and creatures and learns that not every ugly-looking thing is in fact a menace.

The story is quite short, and there’s nothing exactly new in it; the goblin pirates, commandeering a cloud for their ship, were a nice touch of charming originality in an otherwise ordinary story —but they come and go too quickly, barely there before they vanish. This simplicity, however, isn’t a flaw if you’re looking for a simple story.

There are two types of illustrations: small, doodle-ish ones that accompany the text, and detailed, page-sized drawings that are placed between each page of text. Both are gorgeous and dream-like, far more original than the story they present. Even on digital, I was sure I could touch them and sense the brush, the paper, the paint. I wanted to see more; I still do.

Every few pages, however, there seemed to be a disconnection between the text and the images. Like the illustrations appeared a page too late. This doesn’t take from the overall experience, but it was a tad off-putting, like a nagging itch somewhere in the back of your head. Despite this, I truly enjoyed the brief experience and its lovely illustrations.

Unfortunately even the gorgeous illustrations of this storybook could not save it for me. A lot of the problem was the predicable plot and lack of central theme.

This was a short and fun little adventure.
I do think it was slightly scary for younger folk...especially as a bedtime book.
As an adult I thought it was funny and handled dealing with fear very well.
The varying art styles in the illustrations was a nice touch!
Thank you NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for this DRC.

I liked the general storyline but it is so not appropriate for children. Adults will enjoy this book more. I think it is mislisted and the author should re-think this book's market reach. Some of the illustrations are wonderful whereas others appear off somehow. The images don't always match the storyline text which is a little off-putting.

What an odd little book! I actually quite enjoyed this for myself. Some of the art was strange, but I liked the quirky little story.

Would I recommend this to most kids? Uhhh, no. This has some super-creepy images that will freak out more sensitive kids. I wouldn't want to read this to really young kids, but it doesn't have much to offer older kids. The story isn't all that advanced, so it's in a bit of weird place.

This is the kind of book I think will be enjoyed more by adults or by those few kids who like a bit of a scary thrill.

For me as an adult, I enjoyed this 4 star's worth. As a children's book, though? Somewhere between 2 and 3 stars, so I'll go with 3 as it's right in the middle.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lion Forge for providing me with a DRC of this book.

This book has lovely illustrations that instantly captured my attention. It's also a great story of courage. The one issue I might see is that it might frighten some children. If you know your child won't be scared by some of the illustrations and sections of the story, then I have no doubt it would be a wonderful read. If they would be frightened, I suggest perhaps avoiding it.

I think something got lost in translation...

This is a very uneven sort of book. The pacing seems off, with some of the text not quite seeming to match some of the pictures. And there are two types of pictures: rough, sketchy ones that accompany the pages with text; and whimsical, detailed ones that are interspersed between the text pages. I much prefer the latter, even though I'm not sold on the illustrations overall. Half the time, the wolf looks more like a horse, the girl's kite just looks like a flying Band-Aid, and some of the pictures are downright terrifying. I'd think twice about reading this one to really young children.

The story is kind of weak, too. Where are these kids' parents? Why is the girl allowed to walk through the woods all by herself to go fly a kite in an empty field? She's drawn as quite young, so this just seems worrisome.

I like a few of the illustrations, but that's about it. The concept of the goblins in their pirate cloud is underused to the point where it's more annoying than intriguing. Goblins piloting a pirate cloud! How can you make that boring? Well, this book manages to do so.