A knight’s tale in shining armor.
In the 14th century, young Max yearns to buck convention and be a knight.
In this fictional, European-esque kingdom, Max lives with Uncle Budrick, a comically terrible troubadour. Children in Byjovia follow in the career footsteps of their families; Max however, dreams not of songs and lutes but of becoming a knight. When Budrick is captured by the nefarious usurper King Gastley, Max finds a crew of like-minded kids and forms the Midknights. Together they fight an evil sorceress, zombies, and winged rats in their efforts to save Max’s uncle and, ultimately, the kingdom from Gastley’s evil grasp. This middle-grade graphic/prose hybrid plays with gender conventions, mixing in a feel-good theme reaffirming that everyone should be able to follow their dreams and defy pre-existing gender constructs. Plucky, gender-nonconforming Max makes a heartfelt soliloquy imploring the king to allow bothgirls and boys to pursue what they love, be it magic, knighthood, or writing. The zippy mix of prose and comics panels rockets along with quick plotting and lots of funny medieval madcap antics. Peirce’s black-and-white illustrations will be stylistically familiar to fans of his Big Nate series and should resonate with fans of Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid. Main character Max presents white, as are most of the Midknights with the exception of one dark-skinned boy; one other is chubby, and a secondary adult character uses a leg prosthesis.
A knight’s tale in shining armor. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-93108-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skip this meal.
Four foodstuff friends help a student stave off ill effects from a brushed-aside breakfast.
Snacks are absolutely not allowed in Mrs. Sternbladder’s classroom at the James H. Pinchkid Elementary School. When the four taco-ingredient Hunger Heroes—Tammy the tomato, Leonard the cheese, Mr. Toots the bean, and Chip Ninja the tortilla chip—get an alert about a student’s missed meal and his flagging energy before a big test, they immediately take to their taco hovercraft to save the day. This job won’t be easy: An autonomous vacuum, a gym full of dodgeballs, and a snack-loathing teacher all stand in their way. The first in a proposed series, this graphic hybrid is bland as white bread. All the elements are seemingly there: cute, cartoony characters, silly jokes galore, and zippily paced chapters. Unfortunately, the whole never quite equals the sum of its parts. The characterizations are thin, the resolution is quick and questionable, and many scenes feel like dreaded heavy-handed teachable moments having all the allure of a brownie made from brussels sprouts. There is little connection for its readers, who most likely will wonder why they should care about a kid (hardly more than a name and a face) who missed breakfast and why taco ingredients care so much. Humans portrayed throughout show a range of skin tones; however, there is little differentiation between adult and juvenile characters.
Skip this meal. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6282-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
A warm play on the theme of inclusivity, with horrors more huggable than otherwise.
A sheltered young monster discovers that the world isn’t as hostile to her kind as she had been led to believe.
Readers who like their monsters cute as well as scary are in for a treat, as Davault fills her panels and montages with the (mostly) humanoid but variously horned, clawed, fanged, and multiheaded inhabitants of Mr. Halloway’s Home for Horrors. They possess expressive faces, stylishly disarranged bangs (or, as the case may be, tentacles), and distinctly childlike ways. Blue-skinned, tufty-tailed Iris has always been told by (human) Mr. Halloway that he is protecting her and her fellow creatures in his isolated manor house from being hunted down. But when she takes advantage of a rare chance to venture into nearby Dead End Springs, she gets a warm welcome—from everyone except Mathias, an orphan raised by his traumatized aunt to believe that monsters are dangerous. Some actually are, it turns out…but after the frightening dolls one horror creates sell like hotcakes to the delighted locals and Iris’ companions help to save the town from an escaped dreamon who has turned into a nightmare, even Mathias comes around. Better yet, Iris emerges with her yearning to belong to a family fulfilled by the discovery that she has really been living with one all along, and she joins her housemates in turning the mansion into a monster hotel.
A warm play on the theme of inclusivity, with horrors more huggable than otherwise. (author’s note, concept art) (Graphic fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781665903080
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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