Pixels of You, by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota (writers), and J.R. Doyle (Artist)

Pixels of You, by Ananth Hirsh  and Yuko Ota (writers), and J.R. Doyle (Artist): (February 8th 2022, Amulet Paperbacks) is, I think, the first graphic novel I've read in a year or maybe even longer.  Recognizing that my graphic novel reading skills, always a bit tenuous because of years reading text quickly and ignoring illustrations, were rusty, I was firm with myself and looked at the pictures as I read! (yay me). I was rewarded--sc fi sapphic romance with art students ftw!

This is the story of two girls in a not so far off future in which AI is a part of life, and AIs are a part of society.  Realistically, there are tensions and anger and fear.  Indira and Fawn are both photographers, and both have unpaid student internships at the same art gallery, but when they meet for the first time at Indira's exhibit opening, it's a disaster when Fawn (not knowing who she's talking to) offers an uncomfortably frank critique.  The gallery owner, not wanting the two of them messing up the peace of the gallery, decrees that instead of independent final shows, they must work together. And so they do.

Fawn is an AI in a human facsimile body, unlike her "parents" for whom nothing disguises the fact that they are robots.  Indira is on her own, struggling with chronic pain in her artificial eye, the result of a long-ago car accident, and she has reasons to distrust AIs.   But as the two work together, they start to communicate openly and vulnerably, and from there it leads (fairly obviously, but sweet nonetheless) to romance.

The art does a lot of heavy lifting in the story, and so I'm glad I paid attention! The panels really reward lots of looking. As well as helping the emotional beats of the story along, color, tone and small details all add to the individuality of each girl beautifully.  That being said, the writers do a good job in fairly limited text making each one a distinct person, and by the end of the book I carred for both of them lots!

Very much recommended, especially to younger teens who loved kids graphic novels and are now ready to move on to YA.  

disclaimer: review copy received from its publicist

Super Potato's Mega Time-Travel Adventuire, by Artur Laperla, for Timeslip Tuesday

Here's a fun graphic novel for younger kids (6-9 year olds ish) for this week's timeslip Tuesday-Super Potato's Mega Time-Travel Adventure, by Artur Laperla (August 6th 2019 by Graphic Universe). Yesterday I also read a YA book that I thought would be today's post (Hello Now, by Jenny Valentine, which was billed as time travel by the library system), but I decided that interdimensional eternal existence isn't time travel, and I didn't actually like it much in any event, so I fell back on my fall back plan, which was spending ten minutes reading Super Potato, and here I am.

I actually enjoyed Super Potato (S.P.) very much.  Though this is the third book in the series, I had No Trouble At All grasping the backstory--macho, good looking, egomaniac superhero, Super Max, turned into a  potato with the same superpowers by a bad guy.  Several years have passed.  Now Scientists have made a time machine, to give S.P. a chance to go back and foil the bad guy before the transformation happens, so S.P. travels back in time (which makes him very sick to his stomach.  Suspension of disbelief is required, because of course potatoes don't have stomachs...)

S.P. has only a limited window of time in the past...but when a nasty sewer swamp villain shows up, boasting about kidnapping Olivia, who was constantly getting kidnapped and rescued by Super Max, S.P. can't just do nothing.  So it's off to the sewers to save the damsel in distress, who is pretty fed up about it all and gets an awesome kick in to show she's not altogether helpless.

But this adventures makes S.P. miss his date with destiny, and he is still a potato when the time machine brings him back to the present.   The thoughtful reader (which would be me) thinks that he let himself get distracted by the side quest because he's actually happier as a potato; it's clear he has mixed feelings about his past self (with good reason!).

And indeed, he is much nicer as he is now.  He is an awful winsome little flying potato dude, and I found him charming!  (nb--the cover doesn't do the cuteness justice, because it's zoomed in on him so much.   In most of the illustrations, he is a small potato drawn to scale, so much cuter, flying around in his little cape...)

Sylvie, by Sylvie Kantorovitz

Sylvie, by Sylvie Kantorovitz (February, 2021, Walker Books US), is an autobiographical graphic novel for kids that I really loved. Sylvie's an artistic kid growing up in France in the 1960s/70s. She lives at the school (a teacher training college) where her father's the principle. The campus is a great place for a kid to grow up (and I loved the map!). She and her little brother and a few other kids who also live there know all the best places to play, and all the ins and outs of the buildings, and when she's a teenager, she gets a tucked away, unused room in the school for her own domain.  

Being an intelligent, sensitive child, there are lots of things on Sylvie's mind--being the only Jewish kid in her school, the state of her parent's marriage, and the complexities of childhood and adolescent friendships.  And as she gets older, she starts wondering what she will do with her own life--is art, which she loves, something that an adult can make a living from? And how could she follow such a path when her parents won't support that choice?

It's a peaceful, though not facile, journey toward growing up, with (what for me) was just the right mix of happiness and worry. (The bit I found most worrisome was how her parents basically washed their hands of her little brother and packed him off to boarding school--sad).   Even though I read an ARC of the book, in which the illustrations are not as final as the finished edition, I found the art charming and the mix of pictures and words friendly and easy to follow.  It was perfect single sitting bedtime read for me, and since Sylvie's concerns are fairly universal, I bet lots of readers will relate lots, and find this look at a childhood different, but still similar, to their own an absorbing read.

Those looking for Action and Adventure will not find it here, but those who like reading about small bits of ordinary life will be satisfied.  Although Sylvie is a teenager by the end of the book, with a young romance in the works, it's appropriate for kids as young as 8 or 9.

disclaimer-review copy received from the publisher

Mary: the Adventures of Mary Shelley's Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaughter, by Breat Grant and Yishan Li

Mary: the Adventures of Mary Shelley's Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaughter, by Breat Grant and Yishan Li (YA, Six Foot Press, October 2020), is a fun graphic novel, great for Halloween reading, or any time, really.

16 year old Mary Shelley has no interest in carrying on the family tradition of being a writer; living with a mother who's a famous author who puts her writing ahead of everything else has soured her on it.  But she can't escape her Shelly heritage.

The first sign of strangeness comes when the frog she's dissecting in biology class jerks to life.  Mary tries to explain it away.  But when a rather cute (though strangely pale) boy shows up, asking her to sew his foot back on,  Mary can't pretend things are normal.  When more monsters start showing up at her house, asking for medical care, she fights against her new calling as their doctor, though slowly she finds herself accepting and using her gift.  Then things get even more complicated when demons begin to object to her work, and come after her...(her mother's objections are a lot easier to dismiss).

Though I found the story telling a bit choppy at times, and even had check to make sure I hadn't missed anything, I enjoyed this (I'm not a great graphic novel reader, so I think experienced fans of the form might find it smoother sailing).  The plot was gripping, and I laughed out loud at some of the snappy dialogue and some of the especially amusing illustrations of the monsters (for instance, the ghost of Shirly Jackson is inhabiting a stuffed bunny rabbit).

Teens feeling pressured by familial expectations, trying to figure out what to do with their own lives, will relate strongly to Mary. Goth girls, especially, will love her.  The artwork was an intriguing mix of dark and bright scenes, adding nicely to the rhythm of the story.  

A strong start to the series, and the revel toward the end about Mary's real world best friend, Rhonda (who is black) makes me think it will get even better!

disclaimer: review copy received from its publicist

Displacement, by Kiki Hughes, for Timeslip Tuesday

Displacement, by Kiki Hughes (First Second, August 2020), is a stunning graphic novel that tells of a girl travelling back to the internment camp where her Japanese great grandparents and their daughter, her grandmother, were imprisoned during WW II.  

The book opens in 2016, with sixteen-year-old Kiku being dragged around San Francisco by her mom, looking for the house where her family had lived before all people of Japanese descent on the West Coast were rounded-up and incarcerated during WW II.  Standing where the house had once stood, Kiku finds herself inside a sudden fog, and when it clears she's in the audience of a violin concert.  Her own grandmother, Ernestina, is the violinist. 

A second "displacement," as Kiku thinks of them, happens soon after.  This time she finds herself in a nightmarish line of Japanese people, herded along while Caucasian men with guns watch them. Meanwhile, on the tv in their hotel room, Kiku and her mother hear Donald Trump railing against Muslims entering the US.

Home again in Seattle, Kiku displaces once more, and this time she's gone so long in the past she thinks she might never get home again.   As Number 19106, she's one of many shunted first to a temporary internment camp, and then sent to the Utah desert where she spends the next year.  Many things are horrible.  The fear and uncertainty weigh heavily on all the Japanese Americans in the camp, and the living conditions are grim. Kiku find comfort in good freinds, which keeps her going.  And she can hear her grandmother's violin, traveling through the thin walls, though their paths don't cross, and Kiku feels reluctant to force a meeting.

When she finally tries to do so, the fog comes back, and she is home again, in time to see more xenophoic poison on tv. Her experience is too vivid to keep to herself, so she tells her mother, and it turns out she, too, had travelled back to the camp.  And the story wraps up with a bit more time slipping, with her mother, to see Ernestina as a grown-up, and finally closes with real world activism by Kiku and her mother, protesting the new versions of internment camps in Trump's America.

Her mother's theory is that the trauma of the experience has left a generational echo, but the time travel is much more physically real than an echo suggest--Kiku comes back from her second slip with a knee grazed by a fall in the past, and her life in the internment camp, a very real, very lived life, is much more than can be easily dismissed as unreal.  The months she spends in the camp, bored, and frightened, making friends (including one girl who I got the impression might, if things had been otherwise, been more than a friend) might be low on action and adventure, but it's tremendously evocative, and Kiku is a very real and believable teenager.  It was bleak, sad, and scary, but not depressing.

In any event, the time travel is a satisfying mechanism for Kiku, and the reader, to visit a dark piece of American's past.  In my own way of thinking about time travel books, I'd classify this as "time travel as educational experience for character and reader,", but it's also, just as much so, the story of a girl in horrible circumstances, making it though as best she can.  

Even though I'm graphic novel challenged (I have trouble making my eyes move from the words to the pictures when I read them), I had no problem following what was happening even though I wanted to read rather than look!  I was helped, I think, by Kiku's hair being lighter in color than everyone else's (her dad is white); it helped my eyes find her quickly in the pictures without focusing (everyone else looked distinct too, but not as immediately so).

I liked it lots!

The Time Museum, Vol. 2, by Matthew Loux for Timeslip Tuesday

Delia and her cohort of kids training at the Time Museum to journey across the ages are back in another adventure--The Time Museum, Vol. 2, by Matthew Loux (First Second, June 2019).  This graphic novel has all the brightly illustrated fun and excitement of the first volume (my review), and even more danger and suspense.

Delia and the other kids are getting ready for their next time travel mission, with the help of none other than Richard Nixon.  Nixon is a surprisingly capable instructor, and the tips and tricks he provides during training come in very useful indeed when things start going wrong.  Their mission sounded straightforward--travel back to 18th century Versailles to patch up French/US diplomatic relations, but it quickly becomes complicated by a temporal loop that brings future versions of themselves back in time too.  And then things become very strange indeed when all of them travel to a dystopian future, where an old enemy awaits....

I have to confess I totally lost track of what was happening, and couldn't comprehend the plot at all.  I'm not good at paradoxes and causality loops, and though I enjoy many graphic novels, I sometimes have a hard time making the pictures and words work well together.  Though the plot was too much for me, I did enjoy the progress of the relationships between the kids, and their character development, but I liked the first book much better.

That being said, the sci-fi excitement and young teen drama will appeal to many young graphic novel fans, who will doubtless be eager for book 3.  And this is perhaps my favorite fictional Richard Nixon ever....

Sanity and Tallulah, by Molly Brooks

This past week has been busy, with family, home-renovations, and determined reading of YA Speculative Fiction for the Cybils Awards.  But now the family are gone the home renovation can take a back seat (no houseguests expected till February) and I should have the time to blog more!  So here's one I just read, that's easy to write about because it is easy to see without much effort that it's good.

Sanity and Tallulah, by Molly Brooks (Disney-Hyperion, October 2018), is a fun science fiction graphic novel, particularly great for science-minded kids who love cats, but also good for story-minded kids/grown-ups who enjoy fun graphic novels.

Sanity and Tallulah are best friends, and so when Tallulah illicitly uses the lab of their space station home to create a three-headed kitten (Princess Sparkle Destroyer of Worlds), Sanity is there to help cuddle , and to be sad when the kitty is taken from them and imprisoned in the lab.  But PSDofW is not lacking in smarts either, and breaks free, disappearing into the bowels of the space station.  And at just about the same time, electrical malfunctions start plaguing the space station, and there are signs of chewed wires....is it the kitten(s) that are too blame, or some other menace?  Sanity and Tallulah set out to investigate (breaking more rules in the process), and discover that the whole space station is in danger of destruction.  Fortunately, Sanity's clandestine work in the lab has given her the skills she needs to fix the problem...but what will become of Princess Sparkle Destroyer of Worlds?

This is a great book for many reasons.  The friendship of the two girls is a joy to see; they are supportive of each other just beautifully!  The parents are involved and caring, though not always able to keep tabs on their kids, especially Sanity's parents, but they try.  And of course it's a joy to see smart girls doing science; it's not clear to me where Tallulah's own gifts lie, but she's there for her friend and perhaps future stories will give her more of a chance to shine.  The characters are diverse--Tallulah's mom, the senior scientist on the space station, is Latina and Sanity is black.

And on top of that, the story is interesting and engaging, and tense without being overwhelmingly so.  The illustrations help keep things light and the story on the fun side, even when things are going wrong, though the entertaining text doesn't need much help.

My only quibble is that I really wanted to have more context for this space station; there's a bigger story hinted at, and hopefully we'll see more of that in future books!

But in any event, if you have a graphic novel loving kid of 8-on up, offer this book!

Gregory and the Gargoyles, by Denis-Pierre Filippi, for Timeslip Tuesday

Today's Timeslip Tuesday offering is a French import-- Gregory and the Gargoyles, by Denis-Pierre Filippi, illustrated by J Etienne and Silvio Camoni, translated by Anna Provitola (Humanoids, August 2017).  It's a must-read for young graphic novel fans of fun fantasy! (which isn't always me....).

Gregory is put out as all get out when his father moves his family to a new city.  He doesn't want to make new friends and start at a new school.  But that night, he finds a medallion on which is a drawing of the church next door, and so he decides to go exploring.....when he reaches the top of the church, the medallion begins to shine brightly, and Gregory is hurled back in time to the 17th century!

There he meets the church gargoyles, come to life, and finds that they defend of the city and its magical creatures against dark magicians, and they need his help. Gregory's life in the 17th century parallels his real one--same annoying sister, same getting into trouble at school, same parents trying to corral him, same horrible Aunt Agatha.  But there's a big difference--Gregory discovers he has magical talents, and that his Aunt Agatha isn't just annoying--she's the leader of the bad guys!

In a swirl of magical adventures and encounters with magical creatures, including meeting up with a girl who's gifted with magic as well, Gregory tries to help the gargoyles....but the end of this particular mission is ambiguous, setting the stage for more to come. I've said before that I'm not a great graphic novel reader; I have trouble slowing down to look at the pictures, and have a hard time not skimming speech bubbles.  And I was even more confused than usual here-it really is a brightly colored, madcap swirl of adventure and I had trouble keeping the story straight.

But I was still entertained, and feel confident that graphic novel/fantasy/magical creature fans (with younger eyes and more tolerance for intense visual stimulation) will love it! It's fun time travel-wise--I really liked Gregory's plunge into his 17th century alternate reality.  That part I understood perfectly, and thought it was very well done.  There are other time travel hops later in the book, but they are more bubbles of adventure and less integral to the plot.

The target audience really will enjoy this one lots, and will be glad that the 2nd and 3rd books are already out there in English and  ready to read!

In case, like me, you were not familiar with Humanoids, here's a recentish article from Publishers Weekly about their kids/YA graphic novel imprint.

Gordon: Bark to the Future, by Ashley Spires (a PURST adventure for Timeslip Tuesday)

I utterly adored Binky the Space Cat, the first book of Ashley Spires PURST (Pets of the Universe Ready for Space Travel) graphic novels perfect for early elementary readers (who can read but still not up to large text blocks), but not having readers of that age in my life for a while now, I hadn't kept up with the series.   Browsing in my local library (where I try to check out a few books every time I go in to pick up all my holds so as to support circulation numbers) I was very pleased to find Gordon: Bark to the Future, the newest PURST book (Kids Can Press, May 2018), because it filled two immediate needs--a dog book (for possible use in post I'm working on elsewhere) and a time travel book that I could read in one night (because that is the planning level at which I operate).

Gordon shares a space station/house with Binky and Gracie, the cat commanding officer, working tirelessly to keep out alien invaders (house flies).  But disaster strikes! A horde of aliens descends, Binky is captured, and Gracie neutralized, so it's up to Gordon to save the day!

Gordon is not a PURST of vigorous action; he's a thinker, not a fighter, and on top of that he's a dog, with a short doggy attention span.  He is, however, not a bad scientist for a dog, and has on hand a working time machine!  He uses it to go back five years, to warn Binky so the disaster can be forestalled.  But things go badly wrong when he accidently meddles with the path of the past, and Binky never becomes a space cat.   He has to go back in time to try again...but doesn't have enough fuel.  Is everything doomed?  Of course not.

So it's a cute graphic novel for the young, and it's also a very nice introduction to time travel paradoxes and convolutions.  It might not be fully understood by the young reader, but I think the fact that the pictures show what's happening helps, and most young readers in my experience (basically me and my own children, so an admittedly limited sample) are happy to accept not understanding, absorbing rather than dissecting things that don't make sense.

Personally I liked the conceit of the original Binky book (that Binky just thinks he's a space cat, but isn't really) better than the actual sci fi story of this one.  I like cats better than dogs too (favorite part of this one-- seeing kitten Binky!).  But it's still fun.

Sort answer: a really good time travel story for a demographic with few time travel books to choose from.

Tom's Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce, adapted to graphic novel form by Edith, for Timeslip Tuesday

Tom's Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce, is a lovely classic timeslip story, and I'm thrilled that it's now out in the world as a beautiful graphic novel, from French artist Edith (Greenwillow, 2018).

Here's what I said in my post from years ago on the original book (published in 1958):

Tom had been looking forward to the summer vacation--he and his brother Peter had great tree house building plans. But when Peter came down with measles, Tom is sent off to stay with his uncle and aunt, in a small flat that had been chopped out of an old Victorian house. Unable to sleep, Tom is drawn downstairs by the grandfather clock in the hall outside striking thirteen, and opening the back door of the house, finds the Garden...

"a great lawn where flower-beds bloomed; a towering fir-tree, and thick, beetle-browed yews that humped there shapes down two sides of the lawn; on the third side, to the right, a greenhouse almost the size of a real house; from each corner of the lawn a path that twisted away to some other depths of garden with other trees."

Great and terrible is Tom's disappointment the next day, when he opens the same door and sees only dustbins--the land belonging to the old house had been built up years ago. But the next night, the clock strikes again, and Tom steps back again into the past when the garden still existed. There he meets small orphaned Hattie, who also longs for a playmate, and night after night they share the trees, the hiding places, the orchard, meadow, and river, and all the other things that every perfect garden has.

But time doesn't stay still. In the past, Hattie grows older, in the present, Tom grows more desperate to enjoy the garden before he has to go home, and his brother Peter grows lonelier. And at last, one night Tom opens the door, and the garden is no longer there.

This isn't a book where Lots of Things Happen. It is subtle in its buildup, and unhurried in its descriptions. The small adventures that Hattie and Tom have in the garden and its environs are not particularly strange and wonderful--but because these two children have become friends across time, each one suspecting that the other is a ghost, their encounters are magical. And because Pearce takes her time in describing each of Tom's visits to the garden, and describes at length as well Tom's daytime thoughts, as he tries to figure out what is happening, the reader gets to follow at Tom's pace, and appreciate it all along with him.

So I was curious to see if the graphic novel would be able to convey both the shear wonder of the garden, and the tight focus on what Tom is thinking.  Yes to both counts, although perhaps more successfully for the later.  Which is a bit ironic perhaps, but the garden the words built in my mind pretty much defies illustration.   Still it is beautiful.  And we really do get a very good sense of Tom in the daylight world struggling to make sense of what is happening, and the ending as presented here is I think even more successful than in the book; it is a bit more sustained and given a bit more weight by the juxtaposition of words and images.

So in short, yay for this wonderful opportunity for kids who wouldn't be drawn to an old English book to meet this lovely story!

The Call of Cthulu: a Graphic Novel, by H.P. Lovecraft, adapted and illustrated by Dave Shephard

I have lived and worked in H.P. Lovecraft's home town of Providence for many years, just down the street from one of his houses of horror (the Shunned House), and so I've picked up, by osmosis, a general familiarity with the monstrous Cathulu, but the original short story has floated off to the side of my tbr list for ages.  So when I was offered a review copy of the new graphic novel version of The Call of Cthulu, from Canterbury Classic's new  Dark Tales series (April 2018), I seized upon it happily, as a chance to encounter Cthulhu in a more palatable form than Lovecaft's 90 year old original.

An evil alien god, Cthulhu, haunts the dreams of  the unfortunate Henry Wilcox.  He consults a professor, who then dies suddenly, leaving it to his nephew to figure out just what evil being was haunting Wilcox.  The nephew travels around the world, following rumors of cultists who await the rising of the Cthulhu and the chaos and destruction that will follow.

The horror is of such an over-the-top variety that it's not actually disturbing; more disturbing is that the barbaric cultists of Cthulu are all too clearly the product of the rascist idea of savagery vs civilization.  Shephard mitigates this somewhat, by making many of the cultists clearly white, but it still made me uncomfortable.

Shephard notes that he took some in his retelling to  make the narrative flow in a more linear fashion; not having any allegiance to the original this was fine with me.  The illustrations are vivid, the story engrossing.  If you like horrific sci fi graphic novels, and want an easy introduction to Lovecraft, this one is worth the read.

A paean to the great girls of FirstSecond's graphic novels

Of course I said "yes please!" when asked if I was interested in being a stop on FirstSecond's celebration of their girl power graphic novels.  These are great books, about which more later in the post.

But in thinking about what I wanted to say about these books, I find myself wanting to talk a bit about graphic novels with strong girls as not just wonderfully empowering stories for girl readers, but as a wonderful opportunity for boys.

In all sincerity, one of the absolutely best things that came from starting a book blog was being on the receiving end of review copies from FirstSecond.  I hadn't really had any awareness that such books existed before blogging, and thanks to this realization, and the review copies that began arriving, my older son began to be a reader.  Before graphic novels I worried about him; he was a capable reader, but not a keen one, and I was afraid he would be deprived of the mind-expanding wonder of discovering imagined worlds in the pages of books.  Not only did graphic novels make him a reader (primarily of graphic novels still, but they are as real as any other books), but he ended up starting his own graphic novel blog (A Goblin Reviews Graphic Novels), and gained the self-confidence that comes of allowing oneself to have opinions, and the invaluable writing practice that comes in expressing them.

And he got to see a whole bunch of strong girls, having adventures, saving the world, saving themselves and their friends, naturalizing that this is what girls can be.  I don't think he will ever save a damsel in distress; I think he would expect the damsel to be able to save herself, though he'd help if needed/asked.  (I just went upstairs to ask him if in fact reading about strong girls had made him think of real girls as strong; he said "That is a stupid question.  I think of people as strong or weak people, not as strong or weak male or female people. Can I be left alone now please?" which is basically the same point....).

But regardless of the inner workings of my son's mind, if you have a boy who has been tricked into thinking that boys shouldn't read books about girls, give that boy a great graphic novel starring a strong girl and they may well love it.  And then they might read more and more books about girls, internalizing girls as persons, not as stereotypes, which is a good thing.

So happily FirstSecond is still going strong, and still sending us books (yay!).  Here's what's new in the way of girl power.  (links go to my more detailed reviews where applicable).

Monsters Beware is the third volume in the Chronicles of Claudette series by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado (the first two being Giants Beware and Dragons Beware.  Set in a vaguely medieval French world with magic and monsters, Claudette dreams of being a famous warrior and monster slayer.  Her adventures are full of humor, charm, and danger, but what I love about this series most is not just that Claudette is fierce in her sword-waving, but that the two kids who are the main supporting characters, her princess-best friend and her little brother, a would-be chef, get to be just as fierce without the sword part.  They also play an essential role in counterbalancing Claudette's action-oriented zeal.  While being a fun romp that's entertaining as all get out, this series is also a really pleasing exploration of different ways to have strength of character.

The City on the Other Side, by Mairghread Scott and Robin Robinson

Isabel is growing up in sheltered comfort, looking out her windows at San Francisco, a city still recovering from the great earthquake of 1906.  She's not allowed out to explore it, though she would love to.  Her mother is distant and unloving, and sends Isable off to spend the summer out in the country with her sculptor father, who she doesn't know.  There she stumbles through the barrier separating our world from that of the fairies.  In the other world, the two factions, Seelie and Unseelie, are at war.  Isabel is plunged right into the middle of the conflict, when she's entrusted by a dying Seelie warrior with a magical gem that could restore balance...if she can get it to the captured Seelie Princess.  Fortunately Isabel find friends--a mushroom fairy, Button, and a Filipino boy, orphaned by the earthquake, who's also crossed the barrier.  Exploring the city on the other side is magical, but dangerous and scary...but there's never any doubt that it will all work out.  Connections between the two world add weight to Isabel's mission--unbalance on one side of the barrier affects the other.

It's a fine story, and the main characters are charming, but what makes this one truly stunning is the artwork.  It is utterly magical and magnificent and full to bursting with curious denizens of the fairy world.  Gorgeous.

Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter, by Marcus Sedgewick and Thomas Taylor

Scarlett Hart isn't legally old enough to be monster hunter.  But with her parents, two legendary monster slayers in their own right, dead, she has to do something to bring in a bit of money.  So her loyal butler drives her to locations where monsters have been spotted, supports her in the slaying part (though being tough as nails and a dab hand at weapons and ropes, she doesn't need much help in this department), and delivers the monster corpses to collect payment. But her parents' arch-rival, Count Stankovic, is determined to cut her out of the business, and if she gets busted, she'll loose her ancestral home.  And then she finds out the Count has even more horrible schemes afoot, and the monsters keep getting bigger and fiercer....

Fortunately Scarlett is up to the challenge of both the Count and the monsters!  It's fun adventure, Scarlett's a heroine to cheer for, and I found the illustrations very easy on the eye--clear and crisp.  Give this one to young fans of Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood and Co. series.

The Ripple Kingdom, by Gigi D.G. (Cucumber Quest 2)

The Cucumber Quest series tells the saga of a young rabbit boy (Cucumber) whose plans to study magic got derailed by a quest to save the world.  Fortunately for the world, his little sister, Almond, goes with him; she actually has useful fighting skills, whereas Cucumber's magic hasn't yet fully come into its own, and she's much more keen on the whole quest business in general --finding the fabled Dream Sword and defeating the Nightmare Knight.  This installment finds the rabbit siblings and sundry companions battling a tentacled monster with both sword and magic, and learning more about the nature of their mysterious quest.  It is good fun for elementary school kids, and for older kids who aren't in a hurry to grow up!  And Almond and Cucumber subvert gender stereotypes of heroes very nicely indeed.

The League of Lasers (Star Scouts 2), by Mike Lawrence

Avani is happy just being a Star Scout, but when she is invited to join the League of Lasers, for the most elite scouts, she can't say no.  And the moment she accepts, she's whooshed to outer space, and sent on an initiation challenge.  Things go wrong, and she ends up stranded on a methane planet.  With her arch-enemy, the alien Pam.  Happily, Avani and Pam realize that they need to work together, and become pretty good partners...just in time to make first contact with the aliens who live on this planet.   In the meantime, Avani's dad has realized his daughter's missing, despite the efforts of her alien Star Scout friends to convince him otherwise.  And he's ready to travel through space himself to find her again....

It is a very enjoyable survival/friendship/alien encounter story!  It's so much fun to see the girls working together, in good scouting fashion; Avani is an especially good roll model of practicality and determination.   The story moves briskly, and there are plenty of touches of humor to both the story and the illustrations.  It's a bit tense at times, but never really scary...even the most alien of the aliens is rendered in a non-horrifying way.


That's the round-up of the new releases being featured in this particular blog tour, but I can't write about FirstSecond's girl power books for kids without mentioning the queen of them all--Zita the Space Girl!  She blasted into the world back in 2011, and if I were a betting blogger, I'd put my money on her to be a classic for the ages.

Thank you, FirstSecond, for both the review copies and for publishing awesome books!

Monsters Beware! by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado

Monsters Beware! is the third book of the Chronicles of Claudette, written by Jorge Aguirre and illustrated by Rafael Rosado, with John Novak. This is a great graphic novel series for elementary and middle grade kids that will delight all young adventurers, and this third installment keeps the fun and excitement going very nicely indeed.

Claudette's home town is playing host to the Warrior Games, in which three children from each participating kingdom compete to slay monsters.  Claudette, being Claudette, wants desperately for the chance to slay, and manipulates the other kids so that's she's chosen, along with her little brother, Gaston, and best friend, Marie. But Marie's father, the lord of the town, doesn't want anything bad to happen to her, so instead of monsters, the competitions feature domestic and agrarian tasks!  When the trio of kids start to win competition after competition, with other kids mysteriously disappearing during each event, Claudette throws off her disappointment viz lack of monsters to through herself fiercely into the fray of truffle hunting, plowing, etc.

But there actually are monsters--the Sea Kingdom kids are not what they seem to be, and they want more than just victory in the Games.  When their monstrous true nature is finally revealed for all to see (though the reader, Maria and Gaston realized this much earlier in the story), Claudette finally gets to attack.  But though her sword work is fierce, it's Gaston's magical cooking skills and Marie's ability to stall through polite small talk that really save the day!

And the ending is happier than readers could have guessed.

It is tremendously fun, and funny, and this third volume only reaffirms my opinion that the series is one that belongs on the shelves of every young fantasy fan.  The pictures are bright and vibrant and easy to understand, helping moving the story along in beautiful synchronicity with the words (I'm not the best graphic novel reader because I tend to focus on words, and so I appreciate books like this where I can absorb the picture information at the same time).

Here's are my review of the first book--Giants Beware!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Cucumber Quest: the Ripple Kingdom, by Gigi D.G.

I have a soft spot for the graphic novel series Cucumber Quest because my little one (now not so little) was very fond of it when it was still a webcomic....Now it is a book series from FirstSecond, and the second book, The Ripple Kingdom, has just been released (the first book, The Doughnut Kingdom, came out last fall).  Those wise grownups who realize that reading kid-friendly graphic novels is a great way to get kids reading, especially when it's a series that's fun and bright and both a bit silly and quite a bit exciting, should be happy to have it to offer any young readers (7-10 year olds) who they might have kicking around the place.

Cucumber is a young rabbit boy whose plans to study magic got derailed by a quest to save the world.  His little sister, Almond, goes with him, and she's thrilled to have her fighting skills put to the test on their quest to find the fabled Dream Sword and defeat the Nightmare Knight.  Cucumber is much less thrilled, and his thrill level goes down even more when misfortune at sea strands him on a lonely beach.  Almond and their companion, the rather hapless Sir Carrot, are no where to be seen.   But on the beach, Princess Nautilus is being menaced by a gang of crab bullies, and Cucumber is able, to his own astonishment, to use his magic to save her.  The two join forces to rescue Almond, Carrot, and Queen Conch from the giant tentacled Splashmaster, and manage, improbably, to succeed.

It's lots of fun, with colorful illustrations that have touches of silliness, and little bits of random story (like a pop-in visit from the superhero Captain Caboodle, Champion of Justice).  And though the perspective hops around from Cucumber to Almond, the adventure is easy to follow, and quite gripping!  A more serious thread runs through it too--can the Nightmare Knight, who makes an appearance at the end of the book, ever really be defeated when there are always evil, power-hungry folk who will call him back to life????

Cucumber and Almond, and the hapless Carrot, must do their best, and so it's onward to their next adventure in the Melody Kingdom, coming this May!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Doughnut Kingdom (Cucumber Quest #1), by Gigi D.G.

The Doughnut Kingdom (Cucumber Quest #1), by Gigi D.G. (FirstSecond October 2017), is a cute and fun graphic novel for young readers.

My younger son, now 14, has been a fan of Cucumber Quest webcomic for years, and he and I were both very exited to get the book in our hands--he because books are more fun to read, and me because books are all I read, and I was very curious to see what this Cucumber Quest thing was all about.  It's the story of a young rabbit person, Cucumber, whose plans to spend peaceful years at magic school are derailed when a mysterious oracle tells him he has to go save the kingdom.  He knows he's not up to the task of overthrowing the evil queen, and so does his little sister, Almond.  Fortunately Almond sets off after him, determined to be an epic hero in her own right, and her sword skills save him from almost immediate defeat.

She's thrilled to be off on a quest for the fabled Dream Sword; Cucumber less so.  And Carrot, the really rather pathetic excuse for a knight who's joined them, doesn't add much to Cucumber's  confidence.  As for the oracle, she turns out to be much more interested in keeping up with her tv shows than she is in helping quests along, and in fact has carelessly handed the Dream Sword over to an infamous young thief, Saturday.  Can the brave (and less brave) bunnies really succeed against the powerful enemies who are threatening world domination?  Almond thinks yes, Cucumber not so much.

The bright pictures and zippy story carry readers along very nicely indeed.  It's funny, and a tad subversive (Almond's heroic potential is dismissed at first, but she's not going to let anyone keep her from the fun!).  This first volume is something of a stage-setter, and apparently things will get even more exciting in future adventures.  Enthusiastically recommend to fantasy loving eight to ten year olds, who will, if they are like my own child, eat up the zesty sweetness of Cucumber's adventures!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869, by Alex Alice

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869, by Alex Alice (First Second, September 2017) is the most beautiful graphic novel I've read so far this year, and on top of that, it is one of the most interesting stories I've read this year of any genre. It is an oversized book, so the pages have plenty of room for both the detailed illustrations and the detailed plot!

Claire Dulac knew that she was taking a risk when she flew her hot air balloon to the very edge of the stratosphere.  But she judged it one worth taking--if she could find the aether, a mysterious element, air travel, and possibly even space exploration, would be possible. She promised her husband that she would return to him and their son...but she didn't.

The boy Sarphin, won't give up hope that somehow she survived.  And when, a year after she disappeared, a mysterious letter arrives from someone claiming to have found her logbook from that last journey, his hope is renewed.  The letter summons them to the castle of King Ludwig of Bavaria, a "mad" king who dreams of flying ships powered by aether.  The king hopes Claire's husband and son can continue his work, but in the meantime, Bismark dreams of a united Germany given power on the world stage by controlling aether themselves.  His spies are everywhere, and Seraphin and his father are in danger....

So this is part steampunk, part historical fiction, part a celebration of the fabulous creativity of the Victorian age, when scientists were making incredible discoveries and writers were exploding with romantic creativity.  It is a book that screams "give me as a present!" and so, if you need a gift for:

--a young graphic novel fan in general (teenaged rather than a young kid, because the story is a bit complicated and some knowledge of history is helpful.  But there's nothing particularly "young adult" about the plot, so if you have the right sort of 9-12 year old, who likes detail, and history, and machines, offer it up!)
--a fan (of any age) of steampunk, Jules Verne, or late 19th century European history,

this is the one!

I was in fact tempted to keep my review copy hidden from my own teenaged graphic novel reading son, but he is a judge for the Cybils Awards in the graphic novel category, and would be reading this before Christmas in any event.  Here are his thoughts, at his own blog, A Goblin Reviews Graphic Novels.  He would have liked getting it as a Christmas present.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869, by Alex Alice

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869, by Alex Alice (First Second, September 2017), is an utterly gorgeous alternate history, originally published in French.  It's the story of a boy whose mother is a great adventurer, determined to rise in her balloon to deadly heights in pursuit of Aether, a substance that could power incredible wonders.  Sadly, just as she makes her discovery that it doesn't in fact exist, her mission fails, and she dies up in the dark cold at the edge of Earth's atmosphere.  Her journal, though, falls to Earth...

And her son, Seraphin, and her husband grieve, but when, a while later, they receive word her journal has been found and is waiting for them in Bavaria, they set off to retrieve it.  This journey takes them into danger, for the political situation is tense.  The Prussian general Bismark is pressing the other German principalities hard to join him in a unified Germany, and King Ludwig of Bavaria is most reluctant to do so.  Aether, with its potential for military usefulness, could tip the balance of power, and lead to conquest of not just earthly realms, but galactic ones.

Seraphin is determined to foil the Prussian plans, and throws himself into working to continue his mother's dream, while planting false information for Bismark's spies to find.  And Mad King Ludwig, perhaps not so mad at all, dreams of flighing beyond Earth. Fortunately for Seraphin, he becomes part of a cohort of plucky youngsters who can make this dream come true.  If, that it, Bismark doesn't seize it from them....

I know it is only September, but I am already thinking about Christmas presents. This is an absolutely perfect present to give to:

--a connoisseur of beautiful graphic novels.  It has a classy, elegant design and beautiful illustrations.  Likewise, an experienced fan of graphic novels in general (you need to pay attention to the text with this one or else you won't understand it), who likes stories that are fun and fantastical and which bear re-reading multiple times.

--a young reader who enjoyed Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series, even if they might not be a graphic novel fan first and foremost, as this too is alternate European history with a steampunk flavor

--a not necessarily young reader who's a fan of Jules Verne, and 19th century romantic/mad science imaginings in general.  In short, if you have an elderly relative who's impossible to find a present for, but who has Jules Verne on their bookshelves, this would be a suitable gift.

When my review copy arrived, I considered holding it back from my own son till Christmas (he fits all but the last of the categories above).  But it was so perfect for him I couldn't stand to make him wait!  And it was a pleasure seeing him enjoying it.

Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, by Ben Hatke

Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, by Ben Hatke (FirstSecond September 2017) is the second half of an adventure begun last year in Mighty Jack. It is even more exciting and stirring an adventure than the first, and though it could be read on its own, there's no earthly reason not to enjoy both books back to back.  Especially since the first book ends on a cliff hanger, with Jack's little sister Maddy being kidnapped by a giant.

The second book starts with Jack and his friend Lilly climb up a magical vine to rescue Maddy.  They have with them some magical seeds that give them a considerable boost in size and strength, but no particular plan, other than "pursue giant and save Maddy."  Lilly is injured battling the guardian of the bridge into the giant's realm, and when the stalk she's holding onto breaks, she falls onto a platform below the path Jack must take to follow the giant.  She urges Jack to go on without her, and reluctantly he does, finding himself faced with an castle that's sealed tightly shut.

So pretty dire straights....

But the giants aren't the only ones up in the beanstalk land.  At the castle, Jack is helped by little sewer creatures, and makes it inside, though he is no match for the giants planning on eating Maddie. Fortunatly, Lilly has been rescued by goblins, and healed with a taste of goblin blood (not her choice of medicine, but she wasn't given one!).  Though the goblins are friendly, and the little goblins cute, the goblin king has unpleasant plans for her.  Lilly is no passive damsel in distress, though, and in a brave fight she foils him and take his place as king, and sets off with her goblin followers to the rescue!

It continues to be somewhat touch and go, but the kids get home safely in the end.

All of Ben Hatke's books are bright and vibrant and full of exciting adventures vividly portrayed, with characters to love and cheer for, and this is no exception!  The stakes are high, but Jack and Lilly rise to the challenge most beautifully.  Both have their battles, both internal and external, and both emerge victorious.  This is the perfect series to give the kid who likes to swing a sword around, chopping imaginary monsters (or the now somewhat older middle grade kid who doesn't do that anymore but still won't let you give the swords away).  Even if they aren't avid readers they'll be drawn in to the adventure and the pages will turn very nicely indeed.

And in a special treat for Hatke's fans, the end of the book promises an even more magical set of adventures to come with familiar friends from the Zita the Spacegirl books!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis, by Chairse Mericle Harper

Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis, by Charise Mericle Harper (First Second, August 2017) was the first Crafty Cat book I've read (it's a sequel to The Amazing Crafty Cat), and I found this graphic novel for the young (6-9 year olds) utterly charming.

Birdie is a little girl who loves crafting, and when she assumes her alter ego as Crafty Cat, there's no stopping her clever paws!  She's thrilled to be going to a day long Crafty Camp at her school along with her somewhat reluctant best friend Evan....but her hopes for a perfect day are dashed when mean girl Anya shows up at camp too.  Anya appropriates Birdie's pencils, and thrusts herself into Evan and Birdie's partnership, spoiling everything.  The last straw is a game of dodgeball (why would there even be recess during Crafty Camp, thinks Birdie?) when her new monster crown gets wrecked.  Dark depression and anger settle over Birdie, but she is still Crafty Cat, and crafting is still her passion, she has her cloud friend to talk to about it all, and Evan is a good friend. So all is not lost.

The illustrations are tremendously appealing, and Crafty Cat/Birdie is a character to love. This particular story of a perfect day almost wrecked by tension was emotionally intense, hitting almost too close to home,  but the illustrations, and the assumption that it would all work out in the end (which it does) kept me going.

If you have a young child at hand who loves making things, offer the Crafty Cat books!  Even my 14-year-old son was almost, but not quite, drawn to pick up the book because of its appealing cover and title.  If this second book is anything to go on (and why would it not be), they are delightful and inspiring, and kids still getting comfortable with the whole reading thing will find them friendly and accessible.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Cleopatra in Space: The Golden Lion, by Mike Maihack, for Timeslip Tuesday

Young Cleopatra, whisked into an intergalactic future from her home in ancient Egypt, is back for the fourth installment of her adventures in The Golden Lion, by Mike Maihack (Graphix, June 2017).  The Golden Lion, a legendary star of immense power (and small size) has been tracked to a snowy planet far away.  It is part of the prophecy of Thoth that sent Cleopatra off into her destined role as Galaxy Savious, and she's determined to go find the Golden Lion herself.  Also determined to find it is her nemesis Octavian, who has sent a powerful minion to the planet.  Cleo crash-lands in the snow, and her technology fails her; were it not for the fortuitous arrival of young Antony, a young treasure hunting adventure also on the trail of the Golden Lion, she would probably have perished.

But Antony and Cleo fall into an underground chamber that leads to a tropical world beneath the snow, inhabited by a race who speak in algebraic equations, and who prove to be fierce fighters when Octavian's forces attack.  But Antony is not necessarily to be trusted....and the fate of the Golden Lion is uncertain.

There's lots of action in this installment--pages of fight scenes excitingly portrayed.  There also, more pleasing to my mind, some character development.  Cleo, whose main characteristic is to plunge into danger without thinking it through, has some introspective moments, and her awareness of herself as being out of her own time is shown, as is her growing fondness toward Antony.  The addition of an utterly adorable snow otter adds considerable charm!

I feel good progress was made in this fourth book to advancing the plot to the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy, and that's a relief, because it's not the most rapid fire journey to resolution ever.  That being said, I don't object at all to adventuring through the galaxy with Cleo!  The diverse cast of characters and the fascinating premise, not to mention the council of sentient cats, make this a charming series, with excitement, adventure, and cool tech to spare! It's an excellent graphic novel series to offer the "reluctant" reader of 8-12 or so.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher