This story is astonishing enough to leave people speechless.
The silences are the best parts of this graphic novel.
A beetle that’s painted a perfectly chosen, dusky shade of purple takes almost an entire page of wordless panels to land on the surface of a lake. Even in scenes with dialogue, the silences between words are beautiful, too. When Iris, who’s 13, asks her friend Sam what he wants to do when he’s older, he says, “You mean like…” and then stares blankly for a full panel before he asks, “What do you mean?” Sam is only 12 and can’t imagine leaving the town of Bugden. The town’s name is perfectly chosen, too. Iris says, later: “Bugden is so small, it feels like everyone’s watching what I do all the time!” But just outside of town is a hidden city—Iris thinks it looks Byzantine—with submerged railroad tracks and an enormous clock made of stained glass. That leads to a mystery: Is the young girl Iris meets there a time traveler or a ghost? It might be best to describe the book as a puzzle, a haunting one. Even on its final page, not everything has been explained. Literal-minded readers might prefer a story with a clear, simple timeline. But many readers will opt to fill the silences with their own thoughts. Characters tend to present White, including Sam, Iris, and the mysterious Lily.
This story is astonishing enough to leave people speechless. (background notes) (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-306518-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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