Vibrant visuals will draw kids into a story with an optimistic message about standing up to injustice.
When fires hit right in the middle of the monarch migration, a butterfly named Sokar flees to the city to find help for her family.
After a dramatic opening in which Sokar’s father is killed, the book shifts gears to the Lowriders in Space garage, where we see Lupe Impala, Elirio Malaria, and El Chavo Flapjack Octopus del Mar Junior. In town to get El Chavo glasses, the Lowriders meet Sokar and offer to help her. Readers learn how climate change and pollution are impacting the environment, leading to wildfires, and that much of it is due to the influence of big business taking over the neighborhood. Lupe, Elirio, and El Chavo have their eyes opened by Sokar and come up with a plan to save the neighborhood and the monarchs. Though the message is a good one, at times it feels heavy-handed. However, the inspired art will entice readers. The black-ink outlines pop against a warm palette of reds and oranges, and the illustrations have a vintage comic book vibe. The Lowriders are Latinx, while Sokar and her family are Arab and Muslim (Sokar, who resembles a human with wings, wears a hijab), and at one point the new friends discuss similarities between Arabic and Spanish.
Vibrant visuals will draw kids into a story with an optimistic message about standing up to injustice. (glossary of Spanish and Arabic words, author’s note) (Graphic novel. 10-14)Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7948-3
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Action-packed, easy to follow and featuring a cast of monsters inimical and otherwise, along with a winningly intrepid...
A would-be tamer of monsters hooks up with a diminutive would-be monster in this auspicious series opener.
As advertised, the supposed dragon tooth that parentless young storyteller Suri buys from a scruffy market vendor does indeed bring her luck—of both kinds. On the one hand, the ball of magical golden string that she finds in the road belongs to a trio of vicious tiger creatures called “caitsiths” who use the string to masquerade as humans and really, really want it back. On the other, Suri achieves her avowed desire to become a monster tamer when she meets Byron, a humongous if overly friendly dog, and the surly 500-year-old imp Caglio who (through not-yet-explained means) created him. Large of hair and fierce of scowl, Suri dashes through Rioux’s character-centered, cleanly drawn panels like a force of nature, evading the clutches of pursuers (or, sometimes, not) and bouncing back resiliently from every reverse. After several narrow squeaks, the author sends her on her way, dog and imp in tow, in search of more monsters and unmindful of a band of pursuers coming up close behind. Stay tuned.
Action-packed, easy to follow and featuring a cast of monsters inimical and otherwise, along with a winningly intrepid heroine. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55453-636-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Nary a dull moment, nor even a slow one in this escapade’s latest outing.
Three fugitives and a bookish young prince repeatedly rescue one another in the latest episode of this particularly adventuresome graphic-novel series.
Coming by chance upon two mercenaries and a kidnapping victim, ex–circus performer Dessa and her nonhuman companions Fisk and Topper engineer a rescue. The lucky fellow? Paladin, Crown Prince of Medoria. Smitten but annoyed (“Really? It’s gotta be me? Every time?”), Dessa does it again after Paladin ineptly tries to woo her by entering his first joust and then falling beneath his frantic charger’s hooves. Kidnapped again by the same pair during the ensuing brouhaha, Paladin gets away by himself and, turnabout, reappears in time to help Dessa and her friends escape the wrath of his ungrateful royal father. Chantler leaves some questions unanswered (such as how the kidnappers seem to get away so easily each time) and doesn’t advance the larger plotline he set up in the previous two volumes much. He does add an element of star-crossed romance to a typically fast-paced tale replete with narrow squeaks and spectacular gymnastic feats. Both the nonstop action and the sometimes subtle interactions between characters are easy to follow in the cleanly drawn and colored panels.
Nary a dull moment, nor even a slow one in this escapade’s latest outing. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55453-776-1
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
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