This story is funny enough to get away with being utterly adorable.
The characters in this graphic novel are so exhausting that it’s endearing.
Melly the dog looks exactly the way a cartoon character is supposed to. Small, scruffy, and black, she has bright eyes and a head the same size as her body. She wants to play every game—wrestling, fetch, tug of war—even when everybody else is trying to take a nap. The cats in her house are not fond of her. They’re almost relieved when she falls through a hole, Wonderland-style, into another world. The land is ruled by one of the few people with as much energy as Melly, a king who’s constantly posing for statues and competing for trophies. Anyone who beats him risks being sent to the dungeon—either the “nicer dungeon,” where “you can smell cinnamon buns but not eat them,” or the “worst dungeon,” with “sad clown paintings.” Fortunately for readers, another key character is less frenetic, a jaded monster named Narra who’s lost faith in the human race—with good reason. If Eeyore were a gigantic yellow Pokemon, he’d be Narra. The artwork, with its bold colors, actually resembles the Pokemon cartoons, but the characters are even cuddlier. They’re defiant enough, though, to appeal to cynical readers, and the story ends with a revolution. (The king is White, but the rebels and the other human characters are racially diverse.) And the jokes are both subversive and hilarious.
This story is funny enough to get away with being utterly adorable. (Graphic fantasy. 6-11)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-20254-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A quiet, comforting fable of identity and belonging.
Puppets yearn for greater things.
In a toy store, a lonely old sea captain named Spelhorst spies a puppet who reminds him of a lost love. He tries to buy her but is told he must purchase the full set—a king, a wolf, an owl, and a boy—as these puppets “are in a story.” The captain agrees, and that night, he mourns and writes a mysterious letter before dying in his sleep. Sold by the rag-and-bone man, the puppets eventually find their way to two sisters. While the older sister begins writing a play for the puppets, misadventures befall them; each engaging escapade is relevant to the story arc of the puppet in question. For instance, some of the wolf’s teeth are yanked out by the younger sister, and after the maid tosses the puppet out, a fox absconds with her—the first devastates the wolf, as her teeth were her pride, yet traveling through the wild woods fulfills her deepest wish. Gentle tension builds as the puppets wonder if they will be reunited. After exploring their desires and identities, the recovered puppets put on the older sister's play, a story that, though she couldn’t have known it, has beautiful symmetry with the puppets’ adventures. Theatrical language prevents the parallels from becoming too heavy-handed. The vaguely Victorian characters present white in charming drawings that set the mood.
A quiet, comforting fable of identity and belonging. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781536216752
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
A classic story of outsiders making friends—with a little something more.
After moving to a new city, a girl attends a wilderness camp to help her make new friends.
When astronomy-obsessed 9-year-old Vega’s dad Wes gets a new job, the family moves from Portland to Seattle. Vega is not happy about this change and doesn’t want to leave her best friend behind, worrying they will grow apart. Vega’s dad Javi thinks making new friends will help her adjust, so he signs her up for Camp Very Best Friend, which is designed to help introverted local children build new friendships. Vega is not exactly eager to go but makes a deal with Wes, agreeing to try out camp as long as he tries to make a new friend too. It quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary outdoor adventure, and Vega and her fellow campers try to figure out what is really going on. The story smoothly incorporates STEM facts with insets on the page to define and highlight terms or tools. An unexpected twist toward the end of this fast-paced adventure that reveals the truth behind the camp will surprise readers. The clean, bright artwork is enhanced by panels of varying shapes and clear, easy-to-follow speech bubbles. Race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are not explicitly addressed; characters’ names and physical appearances indicate a broadly diverse cast starting with brown-skinned Vega and her two dads.
A classic story of outsiders making friends—with a little something more. (Graphic fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5566-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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