The real joy of the book is watching the artist draw every monster he can think of; if the logic behind the story isn’t...
The first time people open this book, a lot of them are going to say the same thing: “This must be some sort of trick.”
Each picture in the book looks like a feat of human industry, containing tiny, impossible stippling and feathering and crosshatching in every inch of the panel. One drawing of a Behemoth, napping in the crags of a mountain, looks as though it should have taken a year to draw. Nytra seems to have flipped through every bestiary and ancient classic he could find and started drawing the oddest creatures in every book. Readers could be forgiven for thinking the story itself (which incorporates elements of Don Quixote, Jewish mythology, The Canterbury Tales, the legend of St. George, and the canoe cultures of the Pacific Northwest) makes no sense at all. Sample dialogue: “THE WINDMILLS! They’ve turned into DRAGONS!” Protagonists Alan and Leah encounter a giant chicken called Pertelote and a meat-eating boat (called the Meat-eating Boat) as they attempt to rescue their dog from the dragon-windmills. If it feels haphazard, that’s part of the charm. Why shouldn’t there be an enormous drain at the bottom of the ocean?
The real joy of the book is watching the artist draw every monster he can think of; if the logic behind the story isn’t always clear, well, who really wants to know how a magician did his tricks? (historical notes) (Graphic fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-935179-88-7
Page Count: 120
Publisher: TOON Books & Graphics
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Adventures and misadventures, Old West style—but with dinos.
Young Josh needs to up his ride if he’s going to win the Trihorn settlement’s 100th-anniversary Founders’ Day race and meet his hero, Terrordactyl Bill.
Set on the Lost Plains, where ranchers tend to herds of iguanodons, and horses (if there were any) would be easy pickings for the local predators, this series kickoff pits a brash lad and sidekick and schoolmates Sam and Abi against not only the requisite bully, but such fiercer adversaries as attacking pterodactyls. Josh’s first challenge after eagerly entering the race is finding a faster, nimbler steed than his steady but old gallimimus, Plodder. Along comes Charge—an aptly named, if not-quite-fully-trained triceratops with speed, brains, and, it turns out, a streak of loyalty that saves Josh’s bacon both here and in a simultaneously publishing sequel, How To Rope a Giganotosaurus, which prominently features T. Rex’s much larger cousin. Dare adds a map, as well as spot illustrations of rural Western types (Josh and Abi are white, Sam has dark skin and tightly curled hair) astride toothy, brightly patterned dinos. In both adventures Josh weathers regular encounters with dinosaur dung, snot, and gas as well as threats to life and limb to show up the aforementioned bully and emerge a hero.
Adventures and misadventures, Old West style—but with dinos. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4668-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
A grand, giddy, and, at times, literally soaring tale.
Farm animals and French children unite to save the fledgling United States from a scheming mastermind in this airy 18th-century adventure.
Well-informed readers will recognize the titular creatures as the passengers carried into the skies by Montgolfier’s inaugural hot air balloon flight at the Palace of Versailles in 1783. Few, however, will be aware that the three—brilliant aeronautical sheep engineer Bernadette, swashbuckling rooster Pierre, and gifted duck tactician Jean-Luc—went on to lead secret lives righting wrongs and battling evildoers. Notable among the latter is the villainous magician Cagliostro, who, having caught wind of the fact that Benjamin Franklin, a witness to the famous flight, jotted down plans for weaponizing hot air balloons and creating a giant heat ray, has seized both the renowned inventor and his notebook in pursuit of a nefarious plan to make himself King of America. Here, in a mix of prose and profuse graphite drawings that break into mostly wordless sequential panels for action scenes, Phelan lays out a rousing series of chases, clashes, ambushes, and rescues both on and above the ground on the way to a triumphant outcome. The author adds to the animal trio two young humans to do the piloting. He also trots in a host of other historical personages, including Joseph Guillotin (“as sharp a fellow as you are to find in Paris”), Franz Mesmer, King Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette.
A grand, giddy, and, at times, literally soaring tale. (author’s note) (Adventure. 8-11)Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-291100-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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