Captivated kids will be happy to see that Book 3 is on its way.
Neanderthal siblings return for a blustery infoventure in the Ice Age.
Lucy and Andy meet and welcome into their cave an extended, racially diverse family of humans. Andy is less than enthusiastic about the arrangement, but Lucy is glad to have Sasha, a little black girl, and the others to pal around with. Between hunts for food, the adults search for a nearby cave for the humans to move into. The kids play in the snow, do chores, visit a glacier, and visit the Neanderthal family’s summer cave at the beach. Can the families outsmart cave bear Big Bob and appropriate his cave for the humans, or will they live together forever? Modern-day fictional commentators Pam (a white woman) and Eric (a black man) return as well to explain (usually with jokes) and expand on the actual science and discoveries behind the events in Lucy and Andy’s comic-strip adventures. Science-y tidbits dot the narrative panels (usually followed by sarcastic one-liners), and the whole is followed by a museum list, a Q-and-A, and myth-busters about cavemen, all conveyed in a light tone. No further reading or works cited make this problematic as an informational source, but for the paleontologically inclined, it’s a fast, funny read with likable kid characters.
Captivated kids will be happy to see that Book 3 is on its way. (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-38838-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Kibuishi gives his epic tale a hefty nudge toward its long-building climax while giving readers plenty of reasons to stick...
Stonekeeper Emily frees the elves from their monstrous masked ruler and sets out to rejoin her brother and mother in the series’ penultimate episode.
The multistranded storyline picks up with Emily’s return to the world of Alledia. Now a fiery, destructive phoenix struggling to regain control of her actions, Emily goes on to follow her brother Navin and allies as they battle invading shadows on the nearby world of Typhon, then switches back to human form for a climactic confrontation with the Elf King—in the course of which Emily rips off his mask to a chorus of “ERGH!! NO!!! GRAH! RRGH!! AAAGH!” to expose a rousingly hideous face. Cute animal heads on many figures (the result of a curse) and a scene with benevolent-looking trees provide at least a bit of relief from the grim expressions that all the human and humanoid elven characters almost invariably wear. But along with emphatic sound effects, the battle and action scenes in the cleanly drawn, if sometimes cramped, panels feature huge blasts of fire or energy, intricately detailed giant robots, weirdly eyeless monsters, and wild escapades aplenty to keep the pace’s pedal to the metal. Aliens and AIs in the cast come in a variety of hues, elves are a uniform gray, and except for a brief encounter between Emily and a slightly darker lad, the (uncursed) humans default to white.
Kibuishi gives his epic tale a hefty nudge toward its long-building climax while giving readers plenty of reasons to stick around for it. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-545-85002-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
This thrilling coming-of-age adventure is both quirky and sincere.
Some things you must learn on your own.
In this graphic/prose hybrid, Henry Khoo embarks on a secret mission. Now that he’s 12, the legal age to travel alone, he has plans to fly from his Australian home to Singapore, where his father lives. As he haphazardly navigates his way to his flight, his tangled motivations slowly unfold. Initially it appears he wants to establish his independence, seeking reprieve from the overbearing eyes of older sister Jie, Mama, and wuxia drama–watching Popo. Soon the comedic narration reveals that Henry is confronting myriad issues: his emotionally and geographically distant father; his waning relationship with his best friend; and his need to hide his secret identity as the creator of the Fly on the Wall website. Spawned from Henry’s sense that he’s invisible to all, his online comics illustrate school gossip—and draw the opprobrium of the school administration. As in Lai’s debut, Pie in the Sky (2019), humorous line drawings punctuate the text and reveal Henry’s inner feelings. Flashbacks deftly illuminate Henry’s emotional journey to a wider worldview and eventual ownership of his feelings. Lai has a talent of not preaching to her readers, instead offering the reassurance that no one is alone in experiencing the painful awkwardness and occasionally harsh realities of growing up. Henry and his family are Chinese, and dialogue is occasionally bilingual.
This thrilling coming-of-age adventure is both quirky and sincere. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-31411-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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