A fun, heartwarming questing story.
The last dwarf in existence forms unlikely friendships while in search of a lost city.
She Dwarf has been lonely since the death of her heroic mother and longs to find the mysterious Dammerung, home of other dwarves like her. During her first time in the “Big World,” She Dwarf proves her dominance over showboating Hack Battler in a beard challenge (She Dwarf’s beard is long and luxuriant), gets duped by a leprechaun, and fights a wolf-bat-dragon creature. Stubborn and determined, She Dwarf continues her quest with none other than Hack Battler, who, disgraced by his defeat, is hoping to learn from She Dwarf. Their journey takes them to an abandoned dwarven outpost, an oracle, and a relaxing bathhouse. Along the way they meet Drift, an elven assassin, a monster with bears for hands, and many more interesting individuals. In the end, She Dwarf has to confront the truth about what happened to her people and make a difficult decision. In this action-packed, fast-paced graphic novel, readers will feel the energy in every detailed panel. At times the pacing feels too rushed, possibly causing confusion and missing the opportunity to further explore She Dwarf’s surroundings. The bright colors pair well with the lighthearted tone of this adventure but don’t detract from the emotional moments. Most characters with natural human skin tones appear white; Drift is black.
A fun, heartwarming questing story. (Graphic fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62010-738-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Oni Press
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
Vibrant art is incongruously juxtaposed against a poorly executed story line. After a mysterious blue flash shrinks the human race to 1/12 its original size, siblings Mouse and Beat must learn to live in an increasingly perilous new world. While the human race has been affected, animals have not, so now everything from common garter snakes to housecats presents itself as a deadly enemy. A promising concept, this graphic novel quickly loses its stride with histrionic dialogue (as Beat sees a corpse being devoured by ants she melodramatically cries “I’m sorry…I need to be stronger. I need to get used to things like this...”). Furthermore, the oddly formed plot takes too many liberties and fails its reader by setting haphazard boundaries in the creation of its world. Speeding along with a sci-fi-tinged man-vs.-nature theme, the text veers way off-course in the conclusion with an abrupt introduction of supernatural elements. This extremely anomalous ending offers only the vaguest of hints toward further explanation, possibly in a sequel, and will leave readers scratching their heads, if not thoroughly disgusted. (Science fiction/graphic novel. YA)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-316-01323-9
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Short, gleeful and precise.
One artist’s mild childhood, told in episodic flashes.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a tale of growing up that trades neither in overwhelming nostalgia nor sheer, unmitigated dysfunction, so the publication of this illustrated memoir by Myrick (Bright Elegy, not reviewed) is especially welcome. The artist’s upbringing in a small Missouri town not far from St. Louis is chronicled in self-contained episodes identified by year, beginning in 1961 and ending in 1985. Each chapter is an evocative vignette that could almost stand on its own, and several have a Bradbury-esque glow, while darkness falls over some sections. In “My Father’s Hands,” which begins with the family dressing for court, Myrick’s oldest brother, “head bowed, hippie beard pressed against his chest,” gets a ten-year sentence for bank robbery. The most imaginative of these episodes compares his pregnant mother’s swollen belly to the distended shape of “one dying grandmother bulging with the death growing in her stomach,” then envisions the birth of the artist and his twin: “We enter the world, my brother and I . . . with the circle of life wobbling unsteadily. Attached to a grandmother we will never meet.” Most of these stories began as poems, and their elliptical lilt remains, accentuated by Myrick’s artwork (color by Hilary Sycamore), replete with haunted eyes and giant, toothy smiles. By the end, when his youthful self shakes off the past (“I feel the presence of my local gods waning”) and he heads for California, readers may feel wistful for a childhood they never experienced.
Short, gleeful and precise.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2006
ISBN: 1-59643-110-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
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