Okay, this settles it - Katie O'Neill is now one of my favourite artists. Her panels are gorgeous and this prequel to The Tea Dragon Society is a beauty! It has so many things to love: mythical creatures, tea, love, family and environmentalism. What I loved most was how O'Neill dealt with mature topics such as finding your calling, loving your family, gender identity, and protecting the environment - all while creating the most adorable tea dragons!

Overall, this is a beautiful books - in its story and its art. I can't wait to see what O'Neill comes up with next.

This graphic novel brings me so much joy. I love this world and I am so happy I got to visit it again. The art is so beautiful and getting to see the landscapes drawn out was amazing. The writing in this graphic novel is also superb, as it isn’t too complex while it is also not too simple. I hope that we get to continue going back to this world because I always leave with the warmest feeling inside and I finish reading with such a smile on my face.

Already starting out I love that the book is in both ASL and english. I have recently set a goal of learning some basic ASL and this is such a beautiful and inclusive way of doing so.

T.H.E. A.R.T. WOW. I’m in love. My twin sister (an art student) loves Katie O’Neill and went crazy when I told her I got an ARC (too bad she has to wait for the actual publication!) Even though I’m not an art student I love art and her style is absolutely stunning. With every page I just keep thinking... THIS MUST HAVE TAKEN FOREVER. The creatures are SO FREAKIN CUTE.

I’m officially obsessed with Katio O’Neill’s art and this tea dragon world!

This book was provided to me by Oni Press and NetGalley for a fair and honest review

I loved this book just as much as I did the first one, The Tea Dragon Society. Once again, the art doesn't fail. If you read my review for The Tea Dragon Festival you will know I can't draw worth anything. But I have very clear and defined things I like. And I LOVE the artwork that Katie O'Neill provides.

Story line - we get a some Hese and Erik! I'm loving these characters. It does take place before the The Tea Dragon Society, so we get a little more H&E backstory. Which is cute. This also has a real dragon (along with the tea dragons).

Things I've really loved about these two books: the LGBT aspect. It isn't overly obvious and very sweet and lovely. I'm also liking the diversity that is not brought up, but is there! The obvious racial relationships, but once gain, not shoved down the throats of the children that this book is geared too. But so lovely written, and I loved it!

Things I loved about The Tea Dragon Festival: It has sign language in it! The fact that everyone in this village learned it, because of the birth of one person is great! That's not something you see now. But very heart warming! There are many other things I loved about it, but won't spoi in my review. Needless to say, I recommend this book to everyone!

Thank you again to NetGalley and OniPress!

Absolutely amazing. The art work was beautiful as always and the story was just so cute. I absolutely adored it and need more tea dragons in my life. They really do make me wish they were real.

I remember hearing a lot of buzz around The Tea Dragon Society last year, particularly on Booktube, and it's always been in the back of my mind to pick it up and read it, but I hadn't gotten around to it... yet. When the opportunity to review The Tea Dragon Festival came up, I couldn't turn it down because everything I knew about the first book led me to believe it would be beautiful and whimsical and pretty much something I'd love.

And was a I right.

The Tea Dragon Festival is a wonderful tale of finding your place in your community and helping others as Rinn stumbles across a dragon who's been asleep for 80 years and feels out of place. Rinn is, in turn, trying to figure out their place within the community they've grown up in and together they begin to make sense of themselves and their world. Alongside Rinn and Aedhan, there's Rinn's uncle, Erik, and his partner Hesekiel, who are also finding their path, and all of this is set in a charming community village that's as naturally diverse as one we would come across in our daily lives.

That's one of the things that struck me most about this beautifully illustrated graphic novel - it's diversity. Everyone we meet has their own story, path and potential and the diverse range of characters never feels forced or like characters have been given traits simply to say 'Hey, I'm a diverse character.' There are characters who are on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, characters who are deaf (and there's an awesome little intro on how to read the signed conversation in the graphic novel to distinguish it from spoken conversation), old characters, young characters, a whole community of vegetarians... and of course, the tea dragons, themselves who have personalities of their own!

The storytelling is magical, and that's in part to the gorgeous art style, but also the setting and the way characters come together. You can't help but be drawn into the world. It's utterly charming and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon curled up on the couch reading.

My heart was completely stolen by the Tea Dragons - tiny dragons that represent different plants that can be used to make tea, and they all have their own little personalities that jump off the page. What's not to love about dragons and celebrating the drinking of tea?

I loved this instalment so much I immediately purchased a copy of The Tea Dragon Society online so I can read it. (I may have also shared a few pages of The Tea Dragon Festival with my class to get their thoughts on it... and they've been bugging me to continue reading it to them ever since!)

In a world full of books tackling heavy topics, this is a ray of sunshine that deftly handles the real world in beautiful way.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review



I love the <i>The Tea Dragon Society</i> so I jumped at the chance to read this. Katie O'Neill's art is so beautiful - whimsical, sweet and surprisingly full of hidden details. This story follows Rinn, a non-binary young villager who is training to apprentice as a village cook. What they are really good at however, is foraging. As a forager myself, I really loved seeing that in a book! The village the story centres around is very remote and cannot rely on outside supplies so everyone finds what they need from the forest and mountains, consequently the village is famed for its cookery - more or less a sacred occupation there. Rinn is foraging one day when they discover a sleeping dragon in a derelict hut. Things progress from there as Rinn befriends, Ahdren, the dragon, and two familiar (if you've read the first book) bounty hunters turn up to track whatever put him to sleep. This book is beautifully diverse - many different skin tones and ethnicities (and occasionally species) present on the page. One of the characters is deaf and the entire village uses ASL to communicate with her, which is shown on the page. I'd never seen that in a graphic novel before. The bounty hunters are a M/M couple and many background characters are also part of the rainbow spectrum of identity and sexuality. And of course the tea dragons themselves are present on almost every page.

I loved this book so much and I really just want an entire series of these books. Highly recommend and more please.

A brilliant and wonderfully illustrated book that I couldn't put down.
The story is sweet and well written, the graphic part is amazing.
It's the first book I read by these authors and it won't surely be the last.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This review has also been posted on Goodreads.

There is a small village, among the mountains, where people live a peaceful life, collecting food from the forest and taking care of the moody, naughty, wonderful <i>tea dragons</i>. What a surprise they'll have when, one day, they'll find a full-size dragon who's been asleep for 80 years and declares his duty to take care of the village and all its inhabitants!

This comic is a companion volume to the well-known and well-loved <i>Tea Dragon Society</i>, which I recently read and absolutely adored. The artwork, the colouring, the character design; the creatures, the dialogues, the wholesomeness and, last but not least, the effortless representation of every possible human (and not 😋) colour, orientation, disability... oh my! Great, beautiful, sweet experience!! 💜

I could not stress more how much I love this series! I feel blessed to have received this <i>arc</i>. I will recommend this book to absolutely everyone! Wonderful ❤️💛💚💙💜

This was so cute! I love everything from the art style to the storyline to the use of sign language! I’ve never seen sign language used in books like this before and it’s such a cool addition. I also love all of the diversity that’s included, there’s so many poc characters. The art is BEAUTIFUL and I couldn’t get enough of it. At this point, I’ll love anything Katie O’niell puts out. I love all of my little tea dragon babies.

Gentle and inclusive fantasy story with absolutely GORGEOUS illustrations. Prior familiarity with the series or the author is not needed at all.

This graphic novel is honestly the cutest and most inclusive book I have read. This follows a girl named Rinn who discovers a real dragon who fell asleep for 80 years and also follows Erik and Hesekiel as they come back home to investigate the mystery of his enchanted sleep.

I loved how there was sign language in this book and I think it was really well done and explained. I valued the information at the back of the book about sign language and where to locate more information and I think it's such a good way to show others what it is like. This book is just honestly such an important novel for young readers to read.

The art style for this book is breathtaking and all the colours are so vibrant and wonderful. The concept of the Tea Dragons is such an original idea and I am forever obsessed with it. This book will give you such a cosy feeling and is perfect for those rainy days.

I had received a copy of The Tea Dragon Society in my Owl Crate subscription box, and fell in love - it was such a sweet, calming book, one that I enjoyed immensely and even read a couple of times in one day. I knew there had to be more, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it to the release date of The Tea Dragon Festival; I'm incredibly grateful to the publish for the opportunity to read it sooner!

The Tea Dragon Festival was a delight to read from start to finish. The characters were endearing and unique, I (again) loved that there were LGBT characters, the tea dragon mythos is incredibly well crafted and interesting - I could read a whole book about different types of tea dragons! - and I love that the characters use a combination of ASL and spoken word to communicate. O'Neill has a wonderful way with her art that even when there are no words involved at all, the reader still feels so much. It's truly a world that you can lose yourself in, and I'm very thankful to O'Neill for sharing that with us all.

This was, yet again, another adorable graphic novel from Katie O’Neill! I did not enjoy this one quite as much as the first, but it was still meaningful and beautiful as all O’Neill’s books seem to be. Her books just seem to always bring joy through her words as well as her illustrations.

I absolutely love the usage of sign language in this graphic novel as well. The tea dragons are adorable and the introduction of a new character/dragon was great. This prequel is set before the events of the Tea Dragon Society book and both books are worth checking out!!

Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this!

Thank you for the free ARC, Netgalley!

My history with Katie O'Neill began with her first book, <i>The Tea Dragon Society</i>, which I absolutely fell head over heels for. I then read <i>Aquicorn Cove</i> when it came out which, while adorable, didn't quite match the greatness of <i>The Tea Dragon Society</i>. Fast forward to now- The Tea Dragon Festival has just become an instant favorite!

There are so many reason to love these books. First of all, let's talk about that art! So soft, and wonderful, and full of cute dragons and lovely plants and landscapes. I could seriously get lost in this art all day long.

Secondly, the characters are top notch. Unique, lovable, gender encompassing characters, plus anthropomorphic animals and tea dragons. There is even wonderful deaf representation and sign language in this one, which brings me to my third point...

O'Neill is always sliding in some good lessons in here. Lessons on how to treat others, how to deal with emotions and goals, how to care for the planet as well as friends and families. This is the kind of book you can fill your heart with. I hope you are as lucky as I was, to have read this on a quiet, rainy afternoon sipping a cup of tea. I couldn't recommend it more!

( Real Rating: 4.5 stars )

Thank you to Netgalley and Oni Press for letting me read an advanced copy of this book!

My friend has a saying that goes like “dessert isn’t for your stomach; it’s for your heart” and I feel like, if you were to replace “dessert” with this book, and “stomach” with head, this would 100% apply for The Tea Dragon Festival.

The main thing with this book is that it’s soothing. It’s not complex, and it won’t make your brain work at a hundred miles an hour to figure out what’s going on. This is meant to be beautiful and soothing and nice, and it shows in the most wonderful of ways.

The colours in this graphic novel are, to put it simply, to die for. They’re soft yet vibrant, and you want nothing more than to just lose yourself in them. And that’s without saying just how gorgeous the illustrations are, in and of themselves.

Truly, I doubt I’ll ever find a book or series cuter than the Tea Dragon series. It’s so… Wonderful. I feel like I’m floating when I’m reading it, and find myself smiling without even realizing it.

This book in particular made me really emotional because the main character is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. As a non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns in English, that made my heart swell to at least three times its normal size. I felt like crying when I first realized it, but those tears would have been happy and far from sad. And the use of they/them pronouns is just one small bit of the diversity in this novel. Just in this book, there’s what appears to be a male/male (I think, though I don’t think their genders were ever specified) couple, people of colour, sign language use, and probably a ton of other things I didn’t even notice due to how natural they felt in the story.

I know this book is for all ages, but reading it has made me want to have a kid really, really bad so that I can get them to read this series too. It’s so beautiful, soft, soothing, diverse and entertaining, that I don’t see how this could be a less than the absolute perfect gift for a child. It’s already a great gift for an adult, but children deserve to have the chance to read this wonderful series too, and so I know for a fact that I’ll be giving these books to my cousin’s children for Christmas. They’re unfortunately the only children I know, but I do think they’ll love it. Or at the very least, their parents will love reading it to them.

All in all, this book made so so so so soft. It’s the most soothing thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, and I simply cannot recommend it enough.

I absolutely adored Katie O'Neill's "The Tea Dragon society" when I read it earlier this year, so I was thrilled for the chance to read her latest addition to the series. Picking up "The Tea Dragon Festival" was like returning home to one of my favorite fantasy worlds of all time. As a long-time lover of dragons, I'm obsessed with O'Neill's warm yet gentle take on them. She has created a beautifully illustrated series filled with a charming and diverse cast of characters that has quickly made its way into my all-time favorites.

This was an adorable prequel to the Tea Dragon Society. Im so happy we got to see one of the tea master Hese and his partner Eriks bounty hunting adventures. We also follow Eriks niece Rinn and the dragon she discovers sleeping in the woods while foraging for her village. I loved the sweet relationship that develops between them. The story has this wonderful message about finding ones passion and where they belongs. I really appreciated the sign language representation and how the entire village learned it when one of their girls was born without hearing. The talk about the shapeshifting dragon clan being able to change gender made me very happy. I absolutely love the art style and with the festival going on we got some mezmerizing scenes. This is probably aimed at a much younger audience as it doesnt have much writing, but I still adored it. Its just an overall super heartwarming story that anyone can enjoy.

I really enjoyed this. I think that the art and the stories are so cute. I read and loved the first Tea Dragon book and even bought the card game. This sequel did not let me down! I think that the sign language is cute. And I did notice that this book was a little more grown up. All in all I thought it was great and will definitely be getting the paper version for my shelf!

NetGalley provided me with an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for my review. All thoughts are my own.

THE TEA DRAGON FESTIVAL by Katie O'Neill is just as adorable as the first volume. This beautiful world of tea dragons is radiant and alluring. The colors and vibrant and full with life. This graphic novel is one of my all-time favorites now, just like THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY. I totally want to see more from this world. Imagine this in an animated adaptation? Sign me up.