Fun, forsooth.
A skeleton yearns to find a friend.
In this middle-grade graphic novel by a father-daughter duo, an interred skeleton awakens after an unnamed magical item lands near its resting place, leaching power into the ground. Speaking in appropriately Shakespearean language, Yorick proclaims: “Alack, there is but one thing I desire. / A friend.” Shortly thereafter, the skeleton is exhumed by an adorable gray dog who wants to nibble his tibia (to which Yorick protests, “Oh biteth not me so, thou foul beast!”). Yorick attempts to shoo the dog away but reconsiders, hoping its canine cuteness will help win him some friends. After a handful of bumbling, failed attempts send humans running away screaming, Yorick gives up. But Bones the dog wordlessly (though not always silently) shows the loquacious skeleton that a real friend is closer than he may have realized. Told in a three-act structure, the Tankards’ debut collaboration is a delightfully quirky and lively introduction to Shakespearean conventions and iambic pentameter. Pairing the Elizabethan-era vernacular with visuals works well, and once they become accustomed to the syntax, those unfamiliar with the Bard will be able to enjoy this tale of seeking acceptance and friendship. Jeremy Tankard’s full-color panels blaze vibrantly, defined with heavy black outlines that give this an easily recognizable panache. The few humans that Yorick and Bones encounter present with a range of skin tones.
Fun, forsooth. (Graphic fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-285430-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
This kid-friendly satire ably sets claws into a certain real-life franchise.
A trip to the Love Love Angel Kitty World theme park (“The Most Super Incredibly Happy Place on Earth!”) turns out to be an exercise in lowered expectations…to say the least.
When Uncle Murray wins a pair of free passes it seems at first like a dream come true—at least for Kitty, whose collection of Love Love Kitty merch ranges from branded underwear to a pink chainsaw. But the whole trip turns into a series of crises beginning with the (as it turns out) insuperable challenge of getting a cat onto an airplane, followed by the twin discoveries that the hotel room doesn’t come with a litter box and that the park doesn’t allow cats. Even kindhearted Uncle Murray finds his patience, not to say sanity, tested by extreme sticker shock in the park’s gift shop and repeated exposures to Kitty World’s literally nauseating theme song (notation included). He is not happy. Fortunately, the whole cloying enterprise being a fiendish plot to make people so sick of cats that they’ll pick poultry as favorite pets instead, the revelation of Kitty’s feline identity puts the all-chicken staff to flight and leaves the financial coffers plucked. Uncle Murray’s White, dumpy, middle-aged figure is virtually the only human one among an otherwise all-animal cast in Bruel’s big, rapidly sequenced, and properly comical cartoon panels.
This kid-friendly satire ably sets claws into a certain real-life franchise. (Graphic satire. 8-11)Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20808-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A warm play on the theme of inclusivity, with horrors more huggable than otherwise.
A sheltered young monster discovers that the world isn’t as hostile to her kind as she had been led to believe.
Readers who like their monsters cute as well as scary are in for a treat, as Davault fills her panels and montages with the (mostly) humanoid but variously horned, clawed, fanged, and multiheaded inhabitants of Mr. Halloway’s Home for Horrors. They possess expressive faces, stylishly disarranged bangs (or, as the case may be, tentacles), and distinctly childlike ways. Blue-skinned, tufty-tailed Iris has always been told by (human) Mr. Halloway that he is protecting her and her fellow creatures in his isolated manor house from being hunted down. But when she takes advantage of a rare chance to venture into nearby Dead End Springs, she gets a warm welcome—from everyone except Mathias, an orphan raised by his traumatized aunt to believe that monsters are dangerous. Some actually are, it turns out…but after the frightening dolls one horror creates sell like hotcakes to the delighted locals and Iris’ companions help to save the town from an escaped dreamon who has turned into a nightmare, even Mathias comes around. Better yet, Iris emerges with her yearning to belong to a family fulfilled by the discovery that she has really been living with one all along, and she joins her housemates in turning the mansion into a monster hotel.
A warm play on the theme of inclusivity, with horrors more huggable than otherwise. (author’s note, concept art) (Graphic fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781665903080
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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