A prequel to the movie 'Encanto,' this book covers Bruno's development into his own powers. There were some parts that I kind of sped through. There are big chunks of the book where nothing really happens, which can be boring for a middle grade reader. The characters fall perfectly in line with their personalities in the movie, so Segura did an excellent job with that. However, the ending doesn't perfectly align with the Bruno we see in the movie. I'm sure it can be explained away by time passing, but it was a little strange to see the Bruno going into hiding be so different than the one that came out. This must have been a difficult book to write, because you can't have too much character growth, as that happens more in the more, especially with Pepa accepting him and his visions, but some of the character choices didn't make sense. The mystery is an obvious one for older readers, but could be surprising for young ones. A fun read for fans of Encanto, and a good addition to middle grade collections.

This book gave some great background and development to the original Madrigal children. While this book did center around Bruno, each of the girls got some needed character development that wasn't given in the movie.

I went into this book with high hopes of loving it because Bruno is one of my favorite characters, but I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I appreciated that we readers got more of a backstory on Bruno but overall the book and storyline was a bit too repetitive for me. I know it's more of a middle grade book, but as a children's librarian I do read plenty of middle grade. I also found it tough to get through the story where his family was more accepting of him because I know what comes later. Overall though the book was still fairly enjoyable.

I'm sure the kids in my community will love it so I will likely be ordering it, but I just couldn't bring myself to give more than three stars.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for honest feedback. I loved that Bruno got a bit more of a backstory but I think it’s so hard to write his story with his family accepting him while also knowing what happens later. I thought some parts were repetitive and it seemed to push the same 3 ideas over and over again instead of just showing you those themes throughout. I did enjoy reading about this family and Bruno more and I loved what they added at the end. Overall I think some stuff could be edited out (mostly the repetition) and this could be rated higher.

I love the idea of a backstory for Bruno since he was my favorite character in the movie, but this book misses the mark. It had moments that were repetitive and it couldn't hold my attention. I didn't finish it. I got about a third of the way through and just couldn't bring myself to finish it. I'm sure a child may enjoy it, however, so my library will probably end up ordering it.

Alex Segura is creative in any form. This is capable storytelling that builds on popular animation and also stands on its own. A book I would gladly add to my school library.

Very excited to acquire this for our children’s section being a huge fan of Encanto. Look forward to sharing a full review soon.

I generally enjoy the retellings from Disney stories, and this one you'll like if you liked the others. I will say it felt a little random, being about Bruno rather than like the grandmother.