Two Sticky Note Reviews for you today – one on the middle grade graphic novel Hilo: The Boy Who Fell to Earth by Jeff Winick, and the other on Timekeeper by Tara Sim.

First, Hilo. Summary from Goodreads:

D.J. and his friend Gina are totally normal kids. But that was before a mysterious boy came crashing down from the sky! Hilo doesn’t know where he came from, or what he’s doing on Earth. (Or why going to school in only your underwear is a bad idea!) . . . But what if Hilo wasn’t the only thing to fall to our planet? Can the trio unlock the secrets of his past? Can Hilo survive a day at school? And are D.J. and Gina ready to save the world?

Sticky Note Review for Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth by Jeff Winick

And second, Timekeeper by Tara Sim. Summary from Goodreads

In an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely.

It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old clock mechanic Danny Hart knows all too well; his father has been trapped in a Stopped town east of London for three years. Though Danny is a prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but the very fabric of time, his fixation with staging a rescue is quickly becoming a concern to his superiors.

And so they assign him to Enfield, a town where the tower seems to be forever plagued with problems. Danny’s new apprentice both annoys and intrigues him, and though the boy is eager to work, he maintains a secretive distance. Danny soon discovers why: he is the tower’s clock spirit, a mythical being that oversees Enfield’s time. Though the boys are drawn together by their loneliness, Danny knows falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, and means risking everything he’s fought to achieve.

But when a series of bombings at nearby towers threaten to Stop more cities, Danny must race to prevent Enfield from becoming the next target or he’ll not only lose his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

Sticky Note Review for Timekeeper by Tara Sim.

An addendum to the addendum at the end of the video: It’s not that I want Timekeeper to be a problem novel. That’s actually not it, at all. I just think that it was too convenient that Danny’s sexuality was overlooked by townspeople. Almost like a cop out. Poetic license only carries so far.