Raw meat for adrenaline junkies—but not particularly nutritious.
Disingenuously billed as an “educational comic,” this Chinese import divides a group of spiky-haired, manga-eyed young explorers into two teams, then sends them off to gather facts about their respective creatures. Along the way both teams meet—and are sometimes stalked by—various members of the cat family, which occasions breaks for pages of basic facts and behavioral notes. The tiger team has the better run, as it adds Tazen, a “little native” who can talk to animals, in Sumatra and foils a pair of big-cat poachers in Siberia. After rejoining their rivals to exchange taunts (“What kind of king has his women fight for him!”), it turns out that they are backing the winner in a climactic battle for supremacy that, for all that it’s actually holographic, features much extreme violence. Except for Tazen and Kwame, a young member of the “Bushmen tribe” whose chief contribution is a silly mystic lion-summoning ritual, the young cast presents White and, aside from pink-haired peacemaker Sherry, is all male. The many melodramatic views of snarling predators flashing razor-sharp claws and teeth are rousing enough, but the martial premise, typecast players, and weak banter aren’t. Subsequent episodes are set to pit other “beasts of similar strength” in battle for similarly “educational” purposes.
Raw meat for adrenaline junkies—but not particularly nutritious. (multiple-choice quiz) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5458-0549-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Papercutz
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Kibuishi gives his epic tale a hefty nudge toward its long-building climax while giving readers plenty of reasons to stick...
Stonekeeper Emily frees the elves from their monstrous masked ruler and sets out to rejoin her brother and mother in the series’ penultimate episode.
The multistranded storyline picks up with Emily’s return to the world of Alledia. Now a fiery, destructive phoenix struggling to regain control of her actions, Emily goes on to follow her brother Navin and allies as they battle invading shadows on the nearby world of Typhon, then switches back to human form for a climactic confrontation with the Elf King—in the course of which Emily rips off his mask to a chorus of “ERGH!! NO!!! GRAH! RRGH!! AAAGH!” to expose a rousingly hideous face. Cute animal heads on many figures (the result of a curse) and a scene with benevolent-looking trees provide at least a bit of relief from the grim expressions that all the human and humanoid elven characters almost invariably wear. But along with emphatic sound effects, the battle and action scenes in the cleanly drawn, if sometimes cramped, panels feature huge blasts of fire or energy, intricately detailed giant robots, weirdly eyeless monsters, and wild escapades aplenty to keep the pace’s pedal to the metal. Aliens and AIs in the cast come in a variety of hues, elves are a uniform gray, and except for a brief encounter between Emily and a slightly darker lad, the (uncursed) humans default to white.
Kibuishi gives his epic tale a hefty nudge toward its long-building climax while giving readers plenty of reasons to stick around for it. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-545-85002-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Less charming than the opener but does feature a thimbleful of moral quandary at its center.
Armed only with her magical sewing needle, foundling mouse Delphine sets out to confront the cruel rat king in this duology closer.
As vicious rat armies pillage the mouse realms in search of her and her pointy, long-hidden treasure, Delphine finds herself waging an inner war that parallels the outer one. According to dusty documents and other reputable sources, the needle’s good powers can be perverted, but she sees no other way except killing to stop evil rat King Midnight. While struggling with a grim determination to go over to the dark side that sets her at odds with her own fundamentally loving nature, Delphine threads her way along with loyal allies past various scrapes—only to come, climactically, face to face with not only her nemesis, but her own past. Moon stitches in flashbacks to fill out the details of a tragic old love triangle that reaches its fruition here and sews her tale up with a return to Château Desjardins just in time for Cinderella’s wedding and a celebratory rodentine ball in the chandelier overhead, and she leaves a fringe of epilogue hinting at further installments to come.
Less charming than the opener but does feature a thimbleful of moral quandary at its center. (secret codes) (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-368-04833-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
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