A fun, fast-paced ride with plenty of heart.
A clever underachiever must navigate the feared Kowloon Walled City in Liu’s winning manga.
In a colorful 1970s Hong Kong, 7-year-old Tiger, who “prefers to be clever rather than hardworking,” announces that he wants to be a superhero. He does so by leaping onto his teacher’s desk wearing an oversized cat’s head and declaring himself Cat Mask Boy, to the delight of his classmates. But his teacher disapproves, and so does his mother at home, who chases him around with a broom stick when he doesn’t do his homework and won’t take off his mask. Rather than improving through study, Tiger strikes a deal with a friend, Rocky: In exchange for Rocky’s homework, Tiger agrees to make him his own cat mask. The plan works, and Tiger is soon rewarded with his best-ever report card performance (though he’s still in the bottom three in the class). As a reward, they celebrate after school, and Tiger’s report card slips into a middle-aged man’s shopping bag. This sets Tiger on an adventure across the feared Kowloon Walled City, “a den of vice with gambling, drugs, and everything else.” Across the border, Tiger runs into Dragon, who’s a few years older and already a primary school dropout, wise beyond his years and similarly decked out in a cat mask. As he steers Tiger through the city in search of his report card, they grow closer as friends. While the stakes are low in terms of conflict, the everyday bullies and street toughs who stand in Tiger and Dragon’s path entertainingly assume the roles of powerful manga villains in boys’ imaginations. Liu, doing double duty as writer and illustrator, brings their confrontations to kinetic life in dazzling action sequences. The color palette throughout mixes bright tones with muted, darker reds, browns, greens, and plenty of white (including the black-and-white masks themselves). He is at his best in the final night sequences in the Walled City, where the Escher-like apartment buildings twist into each other as the friends try to escape before it’s too late.
A fun, fast-paced ride with plenty of heart.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781545821732
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Nakama Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Flipping awesome.
After a wish goes wrong, a girl and her crush must figure out how to break a body-switching curse.
Chi-Chi Ekeh feels invisible. Like her previous crushes, hot varsity swimmer Flip Henderson—yet another rich white boy at her Texas boarding school—seems unaware of her existence. With only weeks until graduation, Nigerian American Chi-Chi’s friends Esther and Yesenia dare her to ask Flip to Senior Festival. But Flip accidentally shows her promposal video to the whole class—and immediately turns her down. Embarrassed, Chi-Chi flees, but her innocent remark—“I just wish Flip Henderson liked me”—has unexpected consequences. After falling and hitting her head, Chi-Chi wakes up in Flip’s body, and he in hers. Freaked out beyond belief and regularly switching bodies, Chi-Chi and Flip work with Esther and Yesenia to break the curse. Meanwhile, forced to see herself through someone else’s eyes, Chi-Chi must confront uncomfortable feelings. There’s much to love about this book. The fully realized and sympathetic characters, sincere and humorous development of friendships, and protagonist’s relatable and bittersweet emotional journey will keep readers engaged, eager to reach the resolution. Ukazu carefully balances tough topics like self-hatred, depression, and suicidal ideation with funny feel-good moments, deftly rendered in her characteristically expressive style. The dynamic and engaging illustrations bring to life a heartwarming story of self-love, acceptance, and true connection.
Flipping awesome. (author’s note) (Graphic fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250179517
Page Count: 320
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
Hinds adds another magnificent adaptation to his oeuvre (King Lear, 2009, etc.) with this stunning graphic retelling of Homer’s epic. Following Odysseus’s journey to return home to his beloved wife, Penelope, readers are transported into a world that easily combines the realistic and the fantastic. Gods mingle with the mortals, and not heeding their warnings could lead to quick danger; being mere men, Odysseus and his crew often make hasty errors in judgment and must face challenging consequences. Lush watercolors move with fluid lines throughout this reimagining. The artist’s use of color is especially striking: His battle scenes are ample, bloodily scarlet affairs, and Polyphemus’s cave is a stifling orange; he depicts the underworld as a colorless, mirthless void, domestic spaces in warm tans, the all-encircling sea in a light Mediterranean blue and some of the far-away islands in almost tangibly growing greens. Don’t confuse this hefty, respectful adaptation with some of the other recent ones; this one holds nothing back and is proudly, grittily realistic rather than cheerfully cartoonish. Big, bold, beautiful. (notes) (Graphic classic. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4266-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
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