Nuanced explorations of grief and self-discovery temper all the weirdness in this odd—and oddly satisfying—story.
In this first installment in Stanton’s new graphic-novel series, a young girl is forced to deal with repressed memories and emotions when fantasy and reality collide.
Kip, a quirky and insecure introvert, lives in an apartment in a noisy city with her cartoonist dad who is also a widower. One day, she wakes up to find a slew of strange visitors in her bedroom. There’s a rabbit, a ninja, a pigtailed soccer girl, a dinosaur, a unicorn, and a rooster with a pitchfork, to name a few. Kip recognizes them as fictional characters from TV shows, video games, her dad’s comic strips, and even her nightmares. She introduces the characters to her dad—who is distracted and struggling with a creative block—much to his alarm. Leaving the unusual visitors at home, Kip goes to school, where her teacher drops a reminder—next Thursday will be Kip’s turn to get up in front of the class and talk about what makes her unique. Kip doesn’t think there’s anything particularly special about her, but she has bigger things to worry about. As she and her dad deal with the fictional characters’ shenanigans and try to figure out how to get them back to their worlds, they find themselves opening up to each other about her mother’s death, and Kip comes to realize exactly what makes her special. Stanton writes with a fine balance of humor and pathos and uses simple geometric shapes to render his large-eyed characters. Kip and her father are brown skinned. Other characters are racially diverse, and one of Kip’s classmates wears a hijab.
Nuanced explorations of grief and self-discovery temper all the weirdness in this odd—and oddly satisfying—story. (Graphic novel. 7-10)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-306895-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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