Ambitious but overstuffed.
A boy and his dead dog navigate the difficult world of seventh grade.
In this graphic follow-up to The Deadening (2020), Derrick Hollis and his ghostly canine’s co-created Dead Max comics are a hit, and he’s been asked to pen an advice column for the school paper. He has also formed a band with best friend Doug and is looking forward to competing in a Battle of the Bands that he has also planned as a pet-adoption event. Derrick is also trying to negotiate a budding relationship with his crush, Kim. Sullivan’s sophomore effort is busy, both plotwise with its many disparate narrative threads and visually with his crowded, border-busting full-color panels. The art packs a confetti-colored punch into each panel, and while his characters encompass a spectrum of skin tones and heights and include characters with visible disabilities, his female characters are all similarly and unbelievably wasp-waisted and thin. For such a slender volume, it contains too many goings-on for any arc to be fully explored or resolved. For example, Derrick’s mother has a problem with alcohol (a seemingly important detail) that was introduced in the previous volume, but it hardly gets more than a sentence in this offering, and when he answers his peers’ queries in his column, he brushes their serious problems aside. Derrick and Doug are white; Kim and her best friend, Keisha, have brown skin.
Ambitious but overstuffed. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63440-858-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Red Chair Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fitting finale for a top-notch series.
Evie returns once more to the Dark Sun Side, a terrifying land of nightmarish creatures.
This trilogy closer takes place just weeks after 12-year-old Evie narrowly escaped the Dark Sun Side in 2023’s The Nighthouse Keeper. Evie has been living with her aunt Desdemona, believing her parents’ lives were lost in a house fire—but she discovers they’ve been held captive in the Dark Sun Side by the demented creature called the Clackity. Evie, who’s cued white, strikes a bargain with the Clackity and embarks on a series of quests: Succeed, and she gets her parents back; fail, and she risks losing her own life. Accompanied by the lovable Bird, her tattooed companion who’s nestled into her skin and sends her warnings, Evie bravely uses her resourcefulness and altruism to tackle tasks that take her through places like an otherworldly ocean, desert, and forest. The most captivating of these expeditions takes her to the Winterlands, a place that’s striking and chilling in its beautiful descriptions. It’s only in this world that Cáceres’ otherwise evocatively creepy black-and-white illustrations fail to capture the vivid, haunting beauty described in the text. Senf’s storytelling is riveting and wildly imaginative, and her story is populated with unique, otherworldly creatures and characters. Evie’s death-defying crusade makes for a satisfying, compelling closing to the series.
A fitting finale for a top-notch series. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781665934602
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Endearing and slightly offbeat.
A young monster makes a human friend.
When Pebble, who is ungendered, must venture out of the hidden forest and into the world of humans (to unlock their skills, a monster rite of passage according to their parents), everything seems daunting. But one house is welcoming: It’s populated by Wren, a human child with black hair and light skin, and her two fathers, one brown-skinned and one pale. Pebble is a shape-shifter and by default is a stout, orange bean shape with two big eyes; skinny, stretchy arms; and two large horns. The little monster is fond of food or, in fact, anything that can be eaten, including books, rocks, and furniture. Pebble’s special skill seems elusive as the pair become close friends. Wren, however, has talents of her own. She enjoys explaining things and instructing Pebble on a variety of topics: moon phases, humans’ inner ear structure and skeletal anatomy, and the thermodynamics of refrigeration. Hallbeck’s tidy narrative emerges from a format largely consisting of four easy-to-follow frames per page. The nine chapters feel episodic but are winningly tied together by the pair’s developing understanding of each other, achieved through ordinary life and a few extraordinary moments. An adventure into the monsters’ forest to retrieve a special pen, a shared dream sequence, and Wren’s learning to communicate telepathically with Pebble feel both magical and natural—so much so that Pebble doesn’t realize their special skill has actually been found.
Endearing and slightly offbeat. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9780358541295
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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