Bright art, a solid message, and an epic final battle make this one a winner.
Young Arthur realizes being a king is harder than he could have imagined in Valentin and Snow’s middle-grade graphic novel based on the 1963 animated Disney film.
Now that Arthur has been officially made King of Camelot, he’s starting to realize ruling is not as easy as one might expect. He can’t seem to do anything right, although his citizens seem to think he should be able to solve all of their problems for them. Just when he’s starting to lose hope, Merlin pops back in from a visit to the future, just in time to help teach Arthur his next very important lesson—that imagination and determination will make Arthur a great leader. While Merlin and Arthur are out in the world, learning how the youthful monarch can look at situations from different angles to come up with good solutions, Madam Mim is plotting a way to get back at the wizard. While she’s making her potions, Mim’s young niece, Brea Bogwater, appears, having been sent by her family so that Mim can help the girl get control of her powers. Brea just wants to cause mischief and have fun, but Mim has bigger plans. Soon, Arthur has a new mission: to defeat the evil witch who’s moved into his castle and bespelled everyone in Camelot. This graphic novel for young readers picks up the story after the end of the classic film, following the adventures of Arthur as a new king. Colangeli’s art style is similar to its source, but with some modern twists and lively expressions to entertain young readers. The lessons that Arthur must learn to become a more skillful and just leader will resonate with its audience, and the central battle of good versus evil will ensure that these young readers keep turning pages.
Bright art, a solid message, and an epic final battle make this one a winner.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781545812983
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios/Papercutz
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
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