A quick and enjoyable yarn.
Impish Leopold returns for more madcap adventures with his big sister, Celine.
Leopold isn’t your typical annoying little brother: He can turn invisible at will. Often using his powers to torture Celine, he occasionally uses them for good. A snowball fight between the siblings causes them to declare a truce, which is promptly broken, leaving Celine with a snootful of snow and a subsequent cold. Seeing his sister ill and unable to leave her bed to watch her favorite show, Leopold uses his powers to enact the scenes with her favorite toys—though of course, he adds his own spin upon it, seizing the chance to give her a good scare. Later, when a group of boys tease Leopold, saying the power to turn invisible is “a girl’s superpower” and “so lame” (Flammable Man is much cooler), Celine quickly comes to his defense. While the undercurrent of sibling teasing is practically a torrent, it’s gentle and often humorous. Oversized panels with a merry, candy-colored palette carry the short vignettes, most only a few pages long. With its brevity and easy wit, this should be a quick sell to reluctant readers.
A quick and enjoyable yarn. (Graphic fiction. 6-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-1523-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
Smurf-reka! In anticipation of a film scheduled for release in 2011, this previously untranslated version of the cerulean gnomes’ first solo collection (1963) offers three tales: A fly’s contagious bite turns nearly all of the Smurfs into aggressive purple grunters (black ones in the French original—here the translator wisely keeps the color change of Hanna-Barbera’s 1981 TV adaptation); one Smurf’s determination to fly results in multiple crashes and calamities; another’s desire to find peace and quiet away from Smurf Village runs afoul of a mosquito and other hazards. Replete with pratfalls, butt-biting and like slapstick, the neatly squared-off comic-strip–style panels look small at first glance, but coated paper and high production values make both the dialogue and the brightly colored art easy to read. Reminiscent of Asterix in tone but shorter and less sophisticated, these episodes don’t show their age, and they should find a ready audience of recent Toon Book graduates. Also available: The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (ISBN: 978-1-59707-209-6; paper ISBN: 978-1-59707-208-3), a retitled reissue of their first appearance as characters in an earlier comics series. (Graphic fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59707-207-6
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Papercutz
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
Intrepid Space Cat Binky returns with another thrilling and dangerous adventure! While keeping his humans safe from invading aliens (i.e., insects), Binky falls from a window into OUTER SPACE! (aka the backyard). Thank goodness he has his Space Cat Exploration Kit, and he industriously takes notes on alien life until he discovers that his companion Ted (his purple mousie) fell into outer space with him. Just as he plans a rescue, wasps attack and Binky’s humans pull him inside…now Binky must escape the house to save poor Ted from evil alien stingers, but his humans won’t let him out! Good thing Space Cat Binky is now schooled in the ways of alien beasts. Spires’s second tale of (melo-) dramatic derring-do featuring her pudgy hero-in-his-own-mind Space Cat Binky is as much of a hoot as the first. Binky flinging ear swabs like surikens at an invading fly, painting himself to blend in with the wallpaper…priceless. The muted palette and variety of panel shapes, sound effects, expressive characters and deadpan humor work in perfect rib-tickling harmony. (Graphic fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55453-502-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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