Book: A menina que circum navegou pelo Reino Encantado num barco que ela mesmo fez (PT/EN)
I bought this book quite a while ago, and yes, it took me a decade to finish reading it! Not because the book was bad—because it isn’t! It’s fantastic—but because, for personal reasons, I had to take some time to deal with other things. But I finally finished it, and here is my review!
Above, there is the video review, but I’ll write the review below as well, for those who love reading :)
I’ll warn you in advance that this is a book that requires imagination and a playful mind. Hehehe
The book is in the style of “Alice in Wonderland,” that is, very surreal!
So, shall we begin?
I’ll start first with the more “physical” aspects of the book.
The cover:
Perfect! I loved the book cover, especially the print finish, which is exactly the way I like it: matte with spot varnish. In this book, the varnish appears only on the cover image.
The red color chosen for the cover makes the book look interesting and magical. It gives a sense of adventure because, besides being red, it also has a design that looks like worn paper or aged reddish leather. On the edges of both the front and back covers, there is a kind of illustrated “frame” that evokes the feeling of a magical book.
Illustrations:
Perfect! I love illustrations made with graphite pencil. They give a retro and magical feel.
Each chapter has an illustration related to what is about to come.
And I noticed that the drawings are truly hand-drawn and not digital.
Oh, and they were made by the talented Ana Juan!
Font:
The font used in the story is probably Arial.
The font size is very good for reading and doesn’t strain the eyes.
It has plenty of spacing and pauses, which makes the reading experience very pleasant.
Ease of reading:
Well, this is not the point I’m best suited to talk about. I bought the book here in Portugal, and European Portuguese has many differences in terms, words, and grammar. So at first, I had some difficulty understanding certain things, since I hadn’t read anything in European Portuguese before. But after some time reading, I was able to understand better, and in the end everything became quite easy.
However, because it’s a very whimsical story and written in a type of Portuguese different from what I was used to, I initially found it difficult.
Paper:
The best! Hahaha. I’m a number one fan of yellowed book pages, for two reasons:
1 – They don’t strain the eyes as much.
2 – They give off a magical parchment vibe… you know, that aged look.
Number of pages:
279 :)
Well, now that we’ve talked a bit about the physical aspects of the book, let’s move on to the content!
It’s a story of adventure and magic, about a girl who goes to a parallel world alongside the real world.
I loved it and had to really exercise my imagination to follow the story.
The author did an amazing job with the adventure and the madness of the novel.
SYNOPSIS
The story follows little September, a brave young girl who is taken to a parallel kingdom by the Green Wind, a charismatic character who becomes special to her even though she had never met him before.
He leaves her in Fairyland, where she meets several characters and wants to help them while facing the evil Marquess who rules the Enchanted Kingdom.
Throughout the story, she befriends a Dragon whose father is a library (õ.ô yes, that’s right!), and a Marid—a mysterious young man—named Saturday.
Together, they travel across the kingdom in search of a talisman that the Marquess desires, and they discover a magical world full of characters, places, and dreams!
The book won the Locus Award for Best Adult Novel.
If you like stories such as “Alice in Wonderland,” you will love this book.
I loved it—and I’m already thinking about reading it again! :)







