A sweet-mannered debut with plenty of lift, despite the abrupt and wide-open ending.
Intrepid young Maddy encounters goblins, flying whales, and allies ranging from a friendly vampire bat to a pair of “cloud cartographers” in this kickoff chapter.
It’s bad enough that her mild-mannered parents have been transformed into kangaroo rats by the fearsome Thimblewitch—when they’re kidnapped by spider goblins, along with her beloved floating spadefoot toad, Ralph, there’s nothing for it but to set off to the rescue. Traveling with two chance-met balloonist mapmakers, Maddy is amazed to discover that there’s a whole unsuspected world in and above the clouds. But more surprises await: Though Orchard draws both the witch and the goblins with sharp teeth and menacing red eyes, when Maddy tracks her down, the witch turns out to be a well-meaning tinkerer whose magic has gone awry. Moreover, the goblins are skittish but not hostile creatures desperate to replace the stolen power source that keeps their smog-belching city afloat. In return for Ralph and having her parents restored to their original forms, Maddy flies off into future episodes to recover the goblins’ magic. The tale is a stream of imaginative twists and aerial wonders, flowing along easily in a mix of full-page scenes and large sequential panels of lucidly drawn action and pithy dialogue.
A sweet-mannered debut with plenty of lift, despite the abrupt and wide-open ending. (Graphic fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60309-072-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
In this middle-grade graphic novel, young Claire is distressed to discover that her family is about to move from their home in the city to the all-too-rural town of Bellevale. Claire’s parents are starting a new organic bakery, and their fights only serve to worry their daughter further. Just when Claire has settled in and made a new friend named Jet, her mom disappears with an artificial-flavoring salesman. Clearly sneaky dealings are afoot and it’s up to Clair and Jet to solve the mystery. What starts out as a perfectly nice bit of realistic fiction about making new friends and dealing with parental disputes ends up morphing into a bizarre and didactic tale of evil artificial ingredients and corporate domination. The art does little to improve the basic problems with tone. And while the recipes in the back of the book look yummy, there is a self-righteousness to this sketchily drawn story that will leave a bad taste in the reader’s mouth. (Graphic fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-55453-286-5
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
In these retooled versions of Max’s Logbook (2003) and Max’s Mystical Logbook (2004), Moss discards the graph-paper backgrounds, expands the role of a small green pencil-topper that is (at least in the young narrator’s mind) a visitor from space with telepathic powers and remixes lightly revised text and art. In the setup episode Max draws comics, lays out simple science demonstrations (“Experiment #1: What happens when you microwave a marshmallow?”) and turns a bucket full of pencil erasers into action figures by drawing faces on them—all while watching and fretting about his parents’ separation. Max Disaster #2: Alien Eraser Unravels the Mystery of the Pyramids (ISBN: 978-0-7656-3385-5; paper: 978-0-7636-4408-6) features more of the same as he and his best buddy Omar work on a school project offering “proof” that aliens built the Egyptian pyramids. Max’s narrative being thickly interspersed with small color illustrations and neatly lettered captions, comments and dialogue balloons, even novice chapter-book readers will have no trouble following along—and could well catch Max’s interests in science, or at least eraser decoration to boot. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3577-0
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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