Magical adventures abound in this engaging and appealing follow-up.
Picking up immediately where Volume 1 ended, this sequel sees brother and sister witches Dorian and Dani Wytte trying to avoid notice by the newly powerful witches led by their family.
On orders of the twins’ Aunt Hilde, Master Pendragon’s house has been set alight, while witches patrol towns, and older brother Damien is installed as (reluctant) king by their mother and father. Despite these familial ties, the twins and their friends just want peace and justice. However, there is still debate about what’s fair and how best to achieve the goal of having everyone, magical and nonmagical alike, get along as Tur continues to explore the nuances and ambiguities of good versus evil. Relationships grow as crushes are confessed and friendships find their footing. Change also prompts the protagonists to think about their individual selves, their twin bond, and their complicated family. Other characters are further developed, too: Nico discovers his clairvoyance, and Monica rethinks her obligations. Flashbacks with Damien add deeper backstory as well as insight into the traumatizing catalyst motivating the Wytte parents’ revenge. With a possessed house, dragons, a potion gone awry, and more, readers will enjoy the action and hijinks. The bouncy energy and tone of Tur’s writing match the animated, lively manga-style art. Colored speech bubbles coordinated with individual characters help keep the dialogue straight, which is particularly helpful given the expanded supporting cast who feature some diversity in skin tone.
Magical adventures abound in this engaging and appealing follow-up. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-69310-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
Superbly written and illustrated; keeps readers breathless and guessing until the end.
A 22nd-century picaresque with nefarious characters, chosen family, unavoidable camping, and lifesaving butterflies.
It’s 2101, and most mammals have died from sun exposure—a fate the few remaining humans suffer if they don’t live underground as Deepers. Some Deepers are friendly; others will take what they can get by any means necessary. Since Elvie’s parents departed for Michoacán, Mexico, 8 years earlier in search of more monarch butterflies, ran into danger, and have not returned, 10-year-old Black science whiz Elvie has been cared for by her guardian, Flora, a White scientist. Flora and Elvie hope to make a vaccine that enables humans to tolerate sunlight. They struggle to find food, and Flora’s awful cooking sometimes makes their foraged food inedible. Elvie’s journals, which contain her homework, science notes, and sketches, trace their journey—including tracking their latitude and longitude daily—as they follow the amazing migration path of the monarchs, whose young have the ingredient necessary for making both the sun sickness antidote and the vaccine. The eclecticism of Case’s lively visuals in this riveting graphic novel will keep readers both enthralled and learning. The book teaches some astronomy, botany, biology, entomology, animal science, knot tying, and more. Elvie’s special relationship with Flora, along with her quick wit, scientific knowledge, and careful observation skills, makes her a character worth following. Yet she’s all kid—and one who badly wants to be reunited with her parents.
Superbly written and illustrated; keeps readers breathless and guessing until the end. (author's note) (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4260-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
Fans of unbridled, melodramatic tomfoolery will be over the moon.
A taste of poisoned soup spurs the Queen of the Moon and her feline companion into embarking on a quest for a curative fruit from the orbiting orb’s only golden glumpfoozle tree.
In further exploits attended by the monosyllabic, spacesuit-clad titular feline (“Meow”), Harris and Barnett bring back the cast of The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (2022), from diaper-wearing buccaneer Captain Babybeard to computerized toenail clipper LOZ 4000, for a lunar ramble past a pair of mysterious killbots, Psychic Flying Eyeballs of Death, and other hazards. Depicted in rolling arrays of changing palettes and panel sizes and led by the opalescent Queen of the Moon—who, ignoring her loudly rumbling tummy, stoutly declares that “my reign will not be cut short by soup”—the expedition fetches up at last on the edge of a bottomless crater for a last-minute save, appropriately over-the-top grandstanding by a familiar AI with futile protagonistic ambitions (“How many pages did I get this time? 73?”), and a closing celebratory soupfest, depicted Last Supper–style by a vermiform da Vinci. This volume continues the nonstop madcap fun; returning readers will not be disappointed, and new ones will quickly become avid followers of the world’s first feline astronaut.
Fans of unbridled, melodramatic tomfoolery will be over the moon. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780063084117
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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