Weirdly and unexpectedly wonderful.
In Cloud Town, the interdimensional rip looses monstrous Hurricanes; the relational rip might tear a cherished friendship irreparably apart.
Newly uprooted to a nearby wealthy school, Pen and Olive rely on each other to survive. Anxious, academic Olive keeps Pen’s schoolwork on the straight and narrow. In return, hard-edged skater Pen protects Olive from the bullies who torment her. Troubles in their own lives, however, seem primed to push the girls apart. The rift between them only widens when an unexpected encounter with an escaped Hurricane under surveillance by the Care Corp reveals that Olive piloted the Storm Catcher that felled the creature. Not strong, capable Pen, but Olive, who’s afraid of everything. McCloskey’s debut graphic novel is a story of compatibility and divergence as two friends explore and adapt beyond the confines of their relationship and their own self-imposed limitations. Pen, with her troubled home life, is given the more developed backstory of the two whereas Olive has more character growth, gradually overcoming her insecurities and gaining both confidence and independence. Spending as much of the story at odds as they do, it is difficult to believe that the girls, whose personalities are not particularly complementary, were ever truly close; however, that does not detract from readers’ investment in their physical and emotional journeys. A limited color palette and viscerally detailed, dynamic art style vividly illustrate the rich quasi-dystopian world. Pen has Afro-textured hair, while Olive reads as White.
Weirdly and unexpectedly wonderful. (Graphic science fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: April 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5311-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Opening episodes of a comic-book series created by an American teacher in Japan take a leap into chapter-book format, with only partial success. Resembling—in occasional illustrations—a button-eyed, juvenile Olive Oyl, Akiko, 10, is persuaded by a pair of aliens named Bip and Bop to climb out her high-rise bedroom’s window for a trip to M&M-shaped Planet Smoo, where Prince Fropstoppit has been kidnapped by widely feared villainness Alia Rellaport. Along with an assortment of contentious sidekicks, including brainy Mr. Beeba, Akiko battles Sky Pirates and video-game-style monsters in prolonged scenes of cartoony violence, displaying resilience, courage, and leadership ability, but not getting very far in her rescue attempt; in fact, the story cuts off so abruptly, with so little of the quest completed, and at a lull in the action to boot, that readers expecting a self-contained (forget complete) story are likely to feel cheated. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-32724-2
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This first fantastic installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy propels readers along with horror and high adventure, a...
Pullman (The Tin Princess, 1994, etc.) returns to the familiar territory of Victorian England, but this time inhabits an alternate Earth, where magic is an ordinary fact of life.
Lyra Belacqua and her daemon familiar Pantalaimon spend their days teasing the scholars of Jordan College until her uncle, Lord Asriel, announces that he's learned of astonishing events taking place in the far north involving the aurora borealis. When Lyra rescues Asriel from an attempt on his life, it is only the beginning of a torrent of events that finds Lyra willingly abducted by the velvet Mrs. Coulter, a missionary of pediatric atrocities; a journey with gyptian clansmen to rescue the children who are destined to be severed from their daemons (an act that is clearly hideous); and Lyra's discovery of her unusual powers and destiny. Lyra may suffer from excessive spunk, but she is thorough, intelligent, and charming. The author's care in recreating Victorian speech affectations never hinders the action; copious amounts of gore will not dissuade the squeamish, for resonating at the story's center is the twinkling image of a celestial city.
This first fantastic installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy propels readers along with horror and high adventure, a shattering tale that begins with a promise and delivers an entire universe. (Fiction. 12+)Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 978-0-679-87942-4
Page Count: 397
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
SEEN & HEARD
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