A fun, smart choice examining middle-grade male friendships.
Will a girl break up a long-standing friendship?
In this middle-grade graphic offering, Andrew Fineman and Russ Kahng are best friends who happily work on their movie and investigate the local lore of the Jersey Devil. Suddenly their twosome seems in jeopardy when Russ begins dating blue-haired violinist Tara Wallbuck and spending less time with Andrew. Clearly angry and resentful of Tara’s infiltration of their friendship, Andrew’s disdain is visibly growing. Before long, Russ has ditched Andrew to make his own Jersey Devil movie with Tara. When Miss Robbins, the local librarian and resident Jersey Devil expert, offers to take the group camping to substantiate rumored sightings, the boys’ festering animosity comes to an explosive head. A dash of magical realism bonds the group, ending this on a lighter, hopeful note. Tatulli’s engaging artwork fixes its lens squarely on the characters, colorists Caravan Studios many times opting for nondescript pastel backdrops for greater focus on facial expressions. Middle-grade fare about navigating changing friendships is nothing new, and while this covers well-trod ground, it is refreshing to see it explore both the perspectives and feelings of boys with a good balance of humor and pathos. The cast encompasses a range of skin tones but does not specify particulars; main character Andrew presents white, Russ has Asian features and olive skin, Tara has light-brown skin, and Miss Robbins presents black.
A fun, smart choice examining middle-grade male friendships. (Graphic fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-44054-7
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Epic lunacy.
Will extragalactic rats eat the moon?
Can a cybernetic toenail clipper find a worthy purpose in the vast universe? Will the first feline astronaut ever get a slice of pizza? Read on. Reworked from the Live Cartoon series of homespun video shorts released on Instagram in 2020 but retaining that “we’re making this up as we go” quality, the episodic tale begins with the electrifying discovery that our moon is being nibbled away. Off blast one strong, silent, furry hero—“Meow”—and a stowaway robot to our nearest celestial neighbor to hook up with the imperious Queen of the Moon and head toward the dark side, past challenges from pirates on the Sea of Tranquility and a sphinx with a riddle (“It weighs a ton, but floats on air. / It’s bald but has a lot of hair.” The answer? “Meow”). They endure multiple close but frustratingly glancing encounters with pizza and finally deliver the malign, multiheaded Rat King and its toothy armies to a suitable fate. Cue the massive pizza party! Aside from one pirate captain and a general back on Earth, the human and humanoid cast in Harris’ loosely drawn cartoon panels, from the appropriately moon-faced queen on, is light skinned. Merch, music, and the original episodes are available on an associated website.
Epic lunacy. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308408-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean.
A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor.
Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes in a unit they’ve all been looking forward to. But recent dysfunctions in Maddie’s arm and leg mean, stunningly, that she has a brain tumor. She has two surgeries, the first successful, the second taking place after the book’s end, leaving readers hanging. The tumor’s not malignant, but it—or the surgeries—could cause sight loss, personality change, or death. The descriptions of surgery aren’t for the faint of heart. The authors—parents of a real-life Maddie who really had a brain tumor—imbue fictional Maddie’s first-person narration with quirky turns of phrase (“For the love of potatoes!”) and whimsy (she imagines her medical battles as epic fantasy fights and pretends MRI stands for Mustard Rat from Indiana or Mustaches Rock Importantly), but they also portray her as a model sick kid. She’s frightened but never acts out, snaps, or resists. Her most frequent commentary about the tumor, having her skull opened, and the possibility of death is “Boo” or “Super boo.” She even shoulders the bully’s redemption. Maddie and most characters are white; one cringe-inducing hallucinatory surgery dream involves “chanting island natives” and a “witch doctor lady.”
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. (authors’ note, discussion questions) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62972-330-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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