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
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style.
A summer vacation turns out to be anything but relaxing for Greg and a teeming horde of Heffleys.
Gramma declines the offer of a grand birthday celebration, saying that “what would make her REALLY happy is if everyone else went to Ruttyneck Island”—though she prepares individual packs of her legendary meatballs. (“You knew exactly how much Gramma likes you by how many meatballs you got.”) A gaggle of Heffley relatives and a dog stuff themselves into a small beach house, where overcrowding, personality conflicts, and simmering resentments become just some of the ingredients in a rolling boil of sitcom-style catastrophes, not to mention questionable decisions ranging from leaving the kids to make dinner unsupervised to labeling a cooler “HUMAN ORGANS” to keep random passersby from helping themselves. As usual, Greg supplies the setups in poker-faced journal entries interspersed with black-and-white drawings of slouched figures bearing frowny expressions of dismay or annoyance to cue the laffs. Gramma, it eventually turns out, not only (unsurprisingly) has plans of her own, but is also keeping a shocking secret about those meatballs. To go with the knee-slapping set pieces, Kinney slips in a tasty bit of family lore about how Greg’s parents met, plus droll takes on such low-hanging comedy fruit as restaurant manners, viciously competitive board games, and social media influencers (Greg being one, albeit with zero followers, and his Aunt Veronica’s little dog being another, with 3.8 million).
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781419766954
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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