A light space comedy laced with witty dialogue.
Planet Earth has exploded, and 13-year-old Kay seems to be the sole survivor.
Floating in space, Kay finds herself salvaged by a pink, reptilian extraterrestrial named Arizona, who helms a spaceship that collects space debris. Kay seems to quickly adapt to her new life as a passenger aboard the waste-collection vessel while Arizona and crew search the galaxy to find out what happened to Earth. In between and with plenty of banter among the characters, Arizona makes stops at different planets to sell the collected junk pile of space debris to buyers of all sorts. Over the course of planet-hopping through these bizarre experiences, Arizona starts to feel responsible for Kay and begins to worry about the impact of Kay’s loss of her home planet even as the acerbic Kay deflects whenever asked about the catastrophic event that has left her orphaned and stranded in space. Arizona is casually revealed to be gay and male; brown-skinned Kay’s ethnicity and heritage are unexplored. Though the plot is episodic, it’s tied together thematically with a critique of overconsumption, including how Earth’s waste pollutes beyond terra firma. The consistent ignorance of Earth on the part of the ETs Kay encounters is simultaneously a running joke and a wry comment on anthropocentrism.
A light space comedy laced with witty dialogue. (Graphic science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-945820-48-9
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Iron Circus Comics
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
A coming-of-age story as tender and sweet as a summer evening breeze
Summer adventures begin when Bina accidentally locks herself out of her house in Larson’s newest middle-grade graphic novel.
The summer before eighth grade is a season of self-discovery for many 13-year-olds, including Bina, when her best friend heads off to soccer camp and leaves her alone to navigate a SoCal summer. Without athletic Austin around to steer the ship, Bina must pursue her own passions, such as discovering new bands and rocking out on her electric guitar. Unexpected friendships bloom, and new members are welcomed into her family. Though her sphere grows over the summer, friendship with Austin is strained when he returns, and Bina must learn to embrace the proverb to make new friends but keep the old. As her mother wisely observes, “you’re more you every day,” and by the end of summer Bina is more comfortable in her own skin and ready to rock eighth grade. Larson’s panels are superb at revealing emotional conflict, subtext, and humor within the deceptively simple third-person limited plot, allowing characters to grow and develop emotionally over only a few spreads. She also does a laudable job of depicting a diverse community for Bina to call home. Though Bina’s ethnicity is never overtly identified, her racial ambiguity lends greater universality to her story. (In the two-toned apricot, black, and white panels, Bina and her mother have the same black hair and gold skin, while her dad is white, as is Austin.)
A coming-of-age story as tender and sweet as a summer evening breeze . (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-30485-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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