VIMINY CROWE'S COMIC BOOK

A harmonious blend of narrative and intertwined graphic sequences finds two preteens at a comics convention closer to the action than they ever imagined.

Wild-haired Addy Crowe, accompanied by her best friend, Catnip the rat, is helping her uncle, Viminy Crowe, at his booth at the International Comic Book Festival in Toronto. Viminy is the creator of Flynn Goster, the favorite comic of Wylder Wallace, a young attendee at the convention whose mother worries over him endlessly. A magical trip to a convention-hall bathroom sends the two young heroes (and Catnip) through a portal and into the pages of Viminy’s comic. As in real life, their presence in his comic begins to change the course of events. Can the kids change it back before Viminy’s publisher sees it—or before they get killed? The book's creators clearly had a grand time, filling it with fantastic steampunk creations such as mechanizmos, robot goons with human skin who transform into vulturelike robot birds, and VaporLinks, a robot-assisted form of telegram, and cleverly named characters like the villainous Aldous Lickpenny. This wholly imagined fantasy is well–fleshed-out and keeps the pages flying with its extremely clever story within a story. As it embraces so many different genres and formats—comics, steampunk, adventure—expect this to resonate with a wide readership.

A thrilling and imaginative reminder that adventure and magic can be found anywhere, especially where one least expects it—and even if your mother texts you incessantly. (Fantasy/steampunk. 8-12)