Middle schoolers saddled with mean girls of their own will glory in this one’s comeuppance. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing...
Trapped in a textbook, Nina, a purple-haired Everygirl, and her turquoise-tressed fairy friend, Sibyl, take an impromptu tour through history.
It’s all the fault of blonde mean girl Laurie and her malicious, ash-topped sprite, Amanite, who cop the book and riffle the pages while Sibyl is conducting Nina on a field trip to Napoleon’s coronation. This propels Nina into quick encounters with Napoleon and Josephine, Leonardo da Vinci, the French Revolution’s deadly “Madame Sans-Gêne” and Pharaoh Rameses, along with various attacking monsters. Worse, she might miss Laurie’s high-fashion costume party. The sequential panels are cramped and stuffed with partially seen figures and snarky dialogue, but the big-eyed main characters (particularly Nina, who resembles a punk Dora the Explorer) are easy enough to track by their hair colors. Thanks to Sibyl’s loyal gremlin, Pandigole, Nina escapes captivity at last and, clad in dazzling ancient Egyptian garb, makes a splashy entrance at the party to whirl hunky new classmate Antoine out of the clutches of her fuming nemesis.
Middle schoolers saddled with mean girls of their own will glory in this one’s comeuppance. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have personal fairies to help with homework, either. (Graphic fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59707-415-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Papercutz
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
The dream phantasms of a high-spirited narrator intersect, even crowd, reality, but the stream-of-consciousness text makes for a rambling, radically personal tale. Playful images of a stuffed lion, trampoline, purple shoes, and a cat named Pine-Cone take hold in a young girl’s imagination, despite her “old” mother who makes her go to bed when she’d rather “stay up early” and a big sister with a cranky disposition. At home, she likes counting flea bites and pretending to be a worm, but is afraid of the dark and going to Grade One. The second half of the book takes off in a separate first-day-of school direction. Wild dreams precede the big day, which includes bullies on the playground and instant friend Chelsea. The childlike articulations of the text are endearing, but not quite of universal interest, and don’t add up to a compelling story; children may more readily warm to Gay’s illustrations, which include a dreamlike flying cat, a menacing hot dog, and an uproarious stuffed toy looming over everyday domestic scenes. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1999
ISBN: 1-55143-107-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
A sweet-mannered debut with plenty of lift, despite the abrupt and wide-open ending.
Intrepid young Maddy encounters goblins, flying whales, and allies ranging from a friendly vampire bat to a pair of “cloud cartographers” in this kickoff chapter.
It’s bad enough that her mild-mannered parents have been transformed into kangaroo rats by the fearsome Thimblewitch—when they’re kidnapped by spider goblins, along with her beloved floating spadefoot toad, Ralph, there’s nothing for it but to set off to the rescue. Traveling with two chance-met balloonist mapmakers, Maddy is amazed to discover that there’s a whole unsuspected world in and above the clouds. But more surprises await: Though Orchard draws both the witch and the goblins with sharp teeth and menacing red eyes, when Maddy tracks her down, the witch turns out to be a well-meaning tinkerer whose magic has gone awry. Moreover, the goblins are skittish but not hostile creatures desperate to replace the stolen power source that keeps their smog-belching city afloat. In return for Ralph and having her parents restored to their original forms, Maddy flies off into future episodes to recover the goblins’ magic. The tale is a stream of imaginative twists and aerial wonders, flowing along easily in a mix of full-page scenes and large sequential panels of lucidly drawn action and pithy dialogue.
A sweet-mannered debut with plenty of lift, despite the abrupt and wide-open ending. (Graphic fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60309-072-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
