Inventive, fast-paced fantasy with imaginative settings and engaging characters.
In Ledbetter’s debut YA novel, a talented artist discovers that his new sketchbook harbors a dangerous secret.
Cameron Shade is a typical high school student in Wilmington, North Carolina. When he’s not studying art and journalism, he’s either playing online video games with his best friend, Jameson Scott, or visiting the art supply store owned by his mentor, Marco Cassisi. Cameron also has a crush on Farrah Spangled, his journalism classmate and editor of the school newspaper, but she has a boyfriend. Cameron faces a tragic loss when Cassisi dies suddenly. After his estate is settled, Cameron receives an unusual bequest, a seemingly ordinary sketchbook. Inside the sketchbook, Cameron discovers a note warning him to “draw things, not people.” One night, Cameron sketches Farrah in the book, and the drawing seems to speak to him. When the drawing asks Cameron about her name, he decides to call her Echo. The next day, Echo is joined by another drawing named Vittoria. Farrah’s health soon declines and Cameron learns that her soul is being absorbed into the book. What started as an idle sketch soon turns into a race against time as Cameron journeys into the sketchbook to save Farrah. Ledbetter successfully makes his fantastic premise very believable, thanks to well-developed lead characters and settings. He has a solid protagonist in Cameron, an earnest young man trying to find his identity as an artist, and he surrounds Cameron with a supportive father and group of friends. Farrah is a good foil for Cameron, and Ledbetter does a fine job developing their friendship and romantic connection. The action plays out in the real world of Wilmington and the world Cameron discovers inside the sketchbook, with Ledbetter rendering both in bold and intricate detail. Scenes in which Echo and Vittoria come to life on the page and begin communicating with Cameron are particularly impressive. Because this is not a graphic novel, descriptions are important, and Ledbetter’s finely detailed descriptions serve as effective illustrations for Cameron’s journey.
Inventive, fast-paced fantasy with imaginative settings and engaging characters.Pub Date: June 5, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Evernight Teen
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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