Another action-packed installment that will delight existing fans and earn new ones.
Young Kali’s adventures in the mystical world of the Mannamong continue in the second volume of Lengyel’s graphic novel series.
Kali Teal thought she was in enough trouble when the Mannamong nature spirit Tontorus hid himself inside her to escape punishment for a horrible crime. Now, as time is running out to separate them, she’s being pursued by the terrifying Scorch, a Mannamong of immense power, and Blitzstreak, a mischievous Mannamong with motivations of her own. Although she’s saved in the nick of time by the mysterious Hawk, his advice that she try to learn more about Tontorus isn’t easy for her to follow. Gisenes, the leader of the Mannamong, warns her that if Kali becomes too upset over what’s happening, she and Tontorus will fuse together even faster. Somehow, Kali and Tontorus have to start working together. Meanwhile, Kali’s mother still refuses to see what’s happening to her daughter and seems more confused and forgetful every day. Their friends at the ranger station, Trent and Jewel, often fight about Trent’s preoccupation with finding the Crimsong Pearl—an artifact that might be the key to saving Kali and Tontorus. As Kali gets to know the spirit within her, she begins to suspect there may be more to the story of his alleged crime—but then Blitzstreak’s meddling sends them on a new path. Lengyel ably ramps up the intensity and worldbuilding in this second volume of his Mannamong series. The book dives headlong into the action, and the result is consistently exciting, if sometimes a bit hard to follow. There’s clearly much more that’s yet to be revealed about the various players’ true intentions, and readers will share Kali’s frustrations about being kept in the dark about what’s really going on. Lengyel’s bold, vivid art style continues to impress, whether he’s dazzling readers with wild battle scenes or retelling ancient Mannamong legends. Overall, this series continues to be great fun; it’s a particularly good fit for young readers, who will relate to a hero with faults and big emotions.
Another action-packed installment that will delight existing fans and earn new ones.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781732563247
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style.
A summer vacation turns out to be anything but relaxing for Greg and a teeming horde of Heffleys.
Gramma declines the offer of a grand birthday celebration, saying that “what would make her REALLY happy is if everyone else went to Ruttyneck Island”—though she prepares individual packs of her legendary meatballs. (“You knew exactly how much Gramma likes you by how many meatballs you got.”) A gaggle of Heffley relatives and a dog stuff themselves into a small beach house, where overcrowding, personality conflicts, and simmering resentments become just some of the ingredients in a rolling boil of sitcom-style catastrophes, not to mention questionable decisions ranging from leaving the kids to make dinner unsupervised to labeling a cooler “HUMAN ORGANS” to keep random passersby from helping themselves. As usual, Greg supplies the setups in poker-faced journal entries interspersed with black-and-white drawings of slouched figures bearing frowny expressions of dismay or annoyance to cue the laffs. Gramma, it eventually turns out, not only (unsurprisingly) has plans of her own, but is also keeping a shocking secret about those meatballs. To go with the knee-slapping set pieces, Kinney slips in a tasty bit of family lore about how Greg’s parents met, plus droll takes on such low-hanging comedy fruit as restaurant manners, viciously competitive board games, and social media influencers (Greg being one, albeit with zero followers, and his Aunt Veronica’s little dog being another, with 3.8 million).
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781419766954
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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