A pleasing new installment to a charming series.
In this second collection, Hillburn returns to the story of adventurous Lilliputian Kara and the complications that arise from her friendship with a human.
Inspired by tales of small folk, such as The Borrowers and Gulliver’s Travels, Hillburn’s comic-book adventure follows young Kara, a precocious Lilliputian girl who lives with her parents in a dollhouse at the back of a vacant property. This volume picks up after Kara ventures out to find a human family moving into the “Big House” near her home. Kara bonds with teen Naomi but must keep their friendship a secret from her own father, Rowan. Raised to distrust and fear humans, Rowan has resolved to abandon their home despite his family’s reluctance. When he sustains an injury, Kara’s mother, Meldina, must bear the brunt of the moving preparations while also attempting to convince her husband to stay. Kara sees little recourse but to spend as much time with Naomi as possible while she can. The Lilliputian girl finds herself torn between two worlds: the modest survivalism of her own people and the strange comforts and excesses that Naomi offers. The things Kara wants—to stay in her family home and keep her new friendship—seem impossibly out of reach. Hillburn renders Kara’s world in vibrant visuals with lovely use of watercolor and much attention given to the details of Lilliputian homes and lifestyles, and readers will find it delightful to explore. The cast is likable while having realistic flaws, and the author explores genuinely intriguing conflicts as she raises the stakes of Kara and Naomi’s friendship. The girls both struggle with loneliness and isolation, and the narrative doesn’t shy away from the power imbalance caused by their size difference. The pacing can sometimes feel awkward or static, especially when conveying a lot of emotion, but Hillburn’s art throughout is adorable and vivacious. The book also offers a detailed breakdown of her artistic process, from scripting to thumbnailing, painting, and digitally correcting finished pages. It provides a fun window into the book’s creation and will encourage aspiring cartoonists. Overall, this work is sure to enchant young readers.
A pleasing new installment to a charming series.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73556-782-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Nattosoup Studio
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
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