Poor Jonathan York, condemned to newfound self-confidence and awed listeners wherever he goes.
A night in the swamp converts a mild-mannered clerk into a wily yarn spinner in this hair-raising tribute to the life-changing power of stories.
In his debut, Merritt shows both a knack for evocative phrasing—“evening shadows had sidled in like predators seeking out the sick animals in a herd”—and a deft hand at crafting flamboyantly icky monsters in creepy settings. He sends his nerdy-looking protagonist into the murky gloom of Halfrock Swamp, where the price for a room at the only shelter, rickety Cankerbury Inn, is a story. A story? Jonathan York has none to tell. None, that is, until he’s cast out into the night and into the clutches of the extraordinarily toothy West Bleekport Gang, then swallowed by the dreaded Bogglemyre (to be ejected “with one great phlegm-rattling belch…like a human loogie”). Proving increasingly quick both of wit and feet, he escapes the terror-scenting Fear’im Gnott and numerous other hazards on the way back to the inn and, one yarn later, a well-earned night’s sleep. “Time will take many things from you,” the innkeeper declares, but “you’ll always have your story.” The atmospheric drawings not only offer an array of luxuriantly grotesque swamp residents to ogle, but sometimes even take over for the legibly hand-lettered narrative by expanding into wordless sequences and side tales.
Poor Jonathan York, condemned to newfound self-confidence and awed listeners wherever he goes. (Graphic fantasy. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4494-7100-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
Manga with a heavy dose of cute, this debut introduces a shy teenager who is transformed into a reckless heroine by a bicycle with unusual properties. Just a day or so after Aki come across an old bike in the garage that—with a mighty FWOOOOSH—changes her school uniform to high boots, a short dress and a snazzy helmet, a gang of masked bicyclists embarks on a crime spree. Somehow managing to overcome her reluctance, off Aki pedals to do battle. Outfitting her lissome young daredevil with a hot boyfriend/sidekick, a cheery kimono-clad Grandfather to fill in the back story and a “Spirit Bike” with a front fender that turns into a giant snake at need, a toy elephant’s head on the handlebars and the ability to zoom along at super speed, the author propels the tale through many sudden jumps and inset-crammed pages to a climactic race, the dismaying revelation that the gang’s leader is a member of her own family and a juicy closing clinch with the aforementioned sidekick. Bound on the left edge rather than the right, but otherwise indistinguishable from its imported cousins, this should find a ready crowd of action-oriented shojo fans. (Graphic novel. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7868-3676-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
“Is it possible to know something but not see what it is yet?” So writes Dean, the young narrator of this episodic graphic novel, as he records such slice-of-life episodes as playing “soldier” with a trio of new neighbors in a wooded patch near his home, losing a playground fight, meeting a mercurial homeless man and overhearing his parents worriedly discussing his bad attitude at school. Pyle designs his pages with a variety of large sequential and inset panels, using colors to signal both narrative divisions and general mood; the ordinary world is cast in a drab olive green, for instance, bursting into full, comics-style color for fantasized battles. In contrast to the simply drawn figures, which are sometimes hard to tell apart, the author tracks Dean’s groping progress—out of childhood and into something that’s not quite maturity but definitely headed that way—indirectly, with a subtlety that will engage more reflective readers. A coming-of-age tale of the more introspective sort. (Graphic fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7998-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
