Simple, effective illustrations introduce ten-year-old misfit Portia, an intelligent, socially ostracized and lonely girl, living with her single working mother. A strange and oddly frightening dream leads her to the discovery of Jellaby, an altogether charming, dragon-like creature with a pronounced under-bite, a big appetite and an even bigger heart. After seeing a classmate bullied, Portia decides to intervene, and this leads to Portia and Jellaby welcoming a new member to their little group: precocious Jason, a perfect comic foil to Portia’s earnestness. The trio embark on a mission to help the nearly-mute Jellaby return to its home; what starts as a humble quest quickly turns into an epic voyage, as the truth about Portia’s family looms somewhere in the shadows. A simply wonderful tale of friendship and whimsy, masterfully constructed with depth and moxie. Recommend this to fans of Jeff Smith’s Bone series, Andy Runton’s Owly series and Sara Varon’s Robot Dreams(2007). (Graphic novel. 9-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4231-0337-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
“By March 5, 1770, it was dangerous to be a soldier in Boston.” In a few lines of terse prose illustrated with densely hatched black-and-white pictures, Decker lays out the causes of the tension between Bostonians and British troops, and then delivers a blow-by-blow account of events on that March night and the ensuing trials. Along with casting a grim tone over all, his dark, crowded illustrations capture the incident’s confusion and also add details to the narrative. Despite some questionable choices—he names most of the soldiers but none of the casualties, and except for a row of coffins in one picture, never mentions how many actually died—the author leaves readers with a general understanding of what happened, and with a final scene of John Adams (who defended the soldiers in court) pondering the necessity of protecting true Liberty from the “lawless mob,” some food for thought as well. (Informational picture book. 9-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59078-608-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2009
Imaginative and utterly bewitching.
Lovable Zita returns in a charmingly dashing interplanetary adventure to save yet another doomed planet from impending peril.
After saving both a planet and her best friend, Zita has achieved renown as an intergalactic hero and is greeted with adulation wherever she travels. In the midst of her fame, a lone, archaic Imprint-o-Tron—a robot that was built for companionship but took its "imprinting" too far—spies a Zita poster and immediately takes on her likeness. The bot’s mimicry is so exact that it quickly becomes difficult to tell the real Zita from the impostor. A sudden turn of events leads to the real Zita making a felonious—although necessary—decision, instantly transforming her public image from that of hero to outlaw. Faced with saving another planet, the real and fake Zitas must find a middle ground and work together, redefining what it really means to be a hero when they set out to rescue the Lumponians from the cutely named but very deadly Star Hearts, villainous parasites capable of destroying entire planets. Hatke’s arrestingly vibrant art commands instant adoration of its reader. Zita’s moxie is positively contagious, and her adventures are un-put-downable. Readers would be hard-pressed to not find something to like in these tales; they’re a winning formula of eye-catching aesthetics and plot and creativity, adeptly executed.
Imaginative and utterly bewitching. (Graphic science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59643-447-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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