Uptown Oracle Reads… The Sprite and the Gardener | A Wonderful Whimsical Graphic Novel

The Sprite and the Gardener Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt

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Long, long ago, sprites were the caretakers of gardens. Every flower was grown by their hand. But when humans appeared and began growing their own gardens, the sprites’ magical talents soon became a thing of the past. When Wisteria, an ambitious, kind-hearted sprite, starts to ask questions about the way things used to be, she’ll begin to unearth her long-lost talent of gardening. But her newly honed skills might not be the welcome surprise she intends them to be. 

The Sprite and the Gardener, the debut graphic novel by Joe Whitt and Rii Abrego, is bursting with whimsical art and vibrant characters. Join our neighborhood of sprites in this beautiful, gentle fantasy where both gardens and friendships begin to blossom.

The Sprite and the Gardener is a wonderful graphic novel with stunning bright and original artwork. The characters are mostly floral isnpired garden sprites, with flowing flower petals and floral names. I adored how different they all looked, whilst being obviously sprites compared to the human companions in the book. The artwork is bright, focusing on pinks and purples mostly and has a magical feel. I loved the showing of magic throughout, as well as the quality consistency of each panel.

The story feels a bit fairytale like, of garden sprites who no longer help with gardening due to the humans of the world. However the spin is that we’re following the Sprite rather than a human child who finds magic, and we get to re-discover the sprite magic from Wisteria as she brings about her powers that Sprites have mostly forgotten about so far.

Whilst our main character is new to the neighbourhood, all the sprites are mostly friendly. The moral of the story is working together and teamwork in order to create the best outcome which is the garden in this case. The connection between the sprite and the gardener, the sprites, the gardener and her mother were all well written and developed over the story arc. The friendships added to the cosy feel of the book.

At the end of the novel there’s a selection of concept pages showing off the illustrators work. It was great to see the orignal ideas, and how they differed to the final piece – as well as some of the thought process that went into creating this amazing piece of creative.

Positives of The Sprite and the Gardener

• Bright, unique artwork
• Story about teamwork, society and unity

Negatives of The Sprite and the Gardener

• Too short 😭

I received The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review

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