This entertaining mystery will delight readers, especially Enola Holmes fans.
In this YA graphic-novel sequel to a 2020 Netflix film, a bright, resourceful amateur sleuth scours London for her abducted brother.
Enola Holmes has happily gained her independence from her brother Mycroft as well as boarding school. One quiet night, she crawls into Mycroft’s lodging house room to retrieve a book her beloved mother left for her. Shockingly, Enola witnesses strangers breaking in and kidnapping Mycroft. Even if she’s not on the best of terms with him, he’s still her brother, whom she vows to rescue. All she has to go on is that Alarm, an anarchist group, seized Mycroft for information he knows or may learn. Adults are no help—not her mother, who’s in hiding, or her famous brother, Sherlock, at 221B Baker St. Luckily, she has allies, from a street-smart urchin to young Lord Tewkesbury. The kidnappers may be no match for Enola, who has the brains to crack coded messages, the skills to hold her own in fights, and the willingness to search and slink through muck to find her sibling. She even uncovers someone’s diabolical plan—something potentially more devastating than an abduction. George—adapting a story by Nancy Springer, who wrote the original literary series that the film Enola Holmes is based on—crafts a riveting mystery. Enola can charm details out of anyone but also excels at stealthily following people and piecing together clues. Her tendency to steer clear of the upper class is sometimes comical. Enola dons a dress to disguise herself as a “flighty, harmless girl.” Getting her clothes muddy doesn’t faze her, which is a great display of her doggedness in solving crimes. Sposito and Angiolini’s artwork captures the likenesses of actors from the film (for example, Millie Bobby Brown). But the setting is even more impressively rendered—London’s beautiful streets, alleys, and buildings.
This entertaining mystery will delight readers, especially Enola Holmes fans.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68116-088-7
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Legendary Comics YA
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth.
Superman confronts racism and learns to accept himself with the help of new friends.
In this graphic-novel adaptation of the 1940s storyline entitled “The Clan of the Fiery Cross” from The Adventures of Superman radio show, readers are reintroduced to the hero who regularly saves the day but is unsure of himself and his origins. The story also focuses on Roberta Lee, a young Chinese girl. She and her family have just moved from Chinatown to Metropolis proper, and mixed feelings abound. Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane’s colleague from the Daily Planet, takes a larger role here, befriending his new neighbors, the Lees. An altercation following racial slurs directed at Roberta’s brother after he joins the local baseball team escalates into an act of terrorism by the Klan of the Fiery Kross. What starts off as a run-of-the-mill superhero story then becomes a nuanced and personal exploration of the immigrant experience and blatant and internalized racism. Other main characters are White, but Black police inspector William Henderson fights his own battles against prejudice. Clean lines, less-saturated coloring, and character designs reminiscent of vintage comics help set the tone of this period piece while the varied panel cuts and action scenes give it a more modern sensibility. Cantonese dialogue is indicated through red speech bubbles; alien speech is in green.
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth. (author’s note, bibliography) (Graphic fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77950-421-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions.
A teenage girl refuses a medical procedure to remove her heart and her emotions.
June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all “sadness, anxiety, and anger.” The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. Most people around June have had the procedure done; for young people, in part because doing so helps them become more focused and successful. Before long, June is the only one among her peers who still has her heart. When her parents decide it’s time for her to have the procedure so she can become more focused in school, June hatches a plan to pretend to go through with it. She also investigates a way to restore her beloved sister’s heart, joining forces with Max, a classmate who’s also researching the Scientist because he has started to feel again despite having had his heart removed. The pair’s journey is somewhat rushed and improbable, as is the resolution they achieve. However, the story’s message feels relevant and relatable to teens, and the artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June’s world. There are no ethnic or cultural markers in the text; June has paper-white skin and dark hair, and Max has dark skin and curly black hair.
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions. (Graphic speculative fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116214
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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