Deliberate, detailed storycraft offers an enduringly affecting portrait of life in wartime.
Building on the broad success of their refugee drama, Illegal (2018), and their climate change tale, Global (2023), Colfer, Donkin, and Rigano reconvene to relate the story of a young person whose life is altered by military invasion.
Kat, a strong-willed teenager, sees the escalation of armed conflict in real time as tanks begin rolling into town, broadcast on news channels. She heads to a community shelter as bombs start to drop. Schools close, supplies are rationed, and citizens depart by choice or force. Just as Kat’s family is attempting to leave, soldiers abduct her father. Kat stays behind in hopes of saving him instead of following her mother and sister to safety. Falling into the stoic, strained rhythms of life under siege, she watches soldiers pillage homes, neighbors struggle to survive, and buildings burn. Violence and destruction are unpredictable and ubiquitous, yet even children must press on. The story’s nonspecific setting demands that readers acknowledge just how quickly these actions could unfold anywhere. Kat’s eventual happy ending is a welcome, if implausible, narrative relief, but even she admits “when I close my eyes I’m often back in the city with bangs and explosions and things shaking.” Kat has pale skin and dark hair; most of the city’s residents are pale-skinned. Rigano’s paneled illustrations buzz with detailed comic-book intensity, skillfully immersing readers in Kat’s reality.
Deliberate, detailed storycraft offers an enduringly affecting portrait of life in wartime. (creators’ note, sketchbook, interview with displaced Ukrainian teenager) (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781464261251
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
A coming-of-age story as tender and sweet as a summer evening breeze
Summer adventures begin when Bina accidentally locks herself out of her house in Larson’s newest middle-grade graphic novel.
The summer before eighth grade is a season of self-discovery for many 13-year-olds, including Bina, when her best friend heads off to soccer camp and leaves her alone to navigate a SoCal summer. Without athletic Austin around to steer the ship, Bina must pursue her own passions, such as discovering new bands and rocking out on her electric guitar. Unexpected friendships bloom, and new members are welcomed into her family. Though her sphere grows over the summer, friendship with Austin is strained when he returns, and Bina must learn to embrace the proverb to make new friends but keep the old. As her mother wisely observes, “you’re more you every day,” and by the end of summer Bina is more comfortable in her own skin and ready to rock eighth grade. Larson’s panels are superb at revealing emotional conflict, subtext, and humor within the deceptively simple third-person limited plot, allowing characters to grow and develop emotionally over only a few spreads. She also does a laudable job of depicting a diverse community for Bina to call home. Though Bina’s ethnicity is never overtly identified, her racial ambiguity lends greater universality to her story. (In the two-toned apricot, black, and white panels, Bina and her mother have the same black hair and gold skin, while her dad is white, as is Austin.)
A coming-of-age story as tender and sweet as a summer evening breeze . (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-30485-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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