Fun and engaging, but for maximum enjoyment, pick this one up right after reading the first installment.
In this second entry in a series centering on a land where everything is made from cardboard, a group of kids must defeat the evil Grey Queen.
After the adventures detailed in The Other Side of the Box (2021), Mac, Maisie, and Bird are safe in The Cardboard thanks to the help of three witches. But Mac’s sister, Pokey, is trapped in between worlds with Columbo, a phantom dog. And the witches need the children’s help making sense of the board game Cardboardia in order to take down the Grey Queen and save the world. The game came with no instructions, and the children can’t figure it out either, but they must keep trying. On a trip back to Earth, Maisie and Mac stumble upon a copy of Cardboardia, complete with rules. However, Mac’s grandparents, the police, and a threatening character named Weird Guy are looking for them. The story ends as the plot at home and in The Cardboard thickens. Clever chapter breaks, with the chapter number indicated by the dots on the side of a die, include trading cards of the ever growing cast of characters. Bright colors, varying panel format, and ample white space between panels create visual interest on each page, and the blue-toned scenes depicting the trapped Pokey clearly establish a separate world. Readers unfamiliar with the first installment will be lost, as will those who have read the book some time ago. The book ends on a cliffhanger; fans will be eager to see how the story wraps up. Mac, Pokey, and Bird are tan-skinned, while Maisie is light-skinned; the witches have green skin.
Fun and engaging, but for maximum enjoyment, pick this one up right after reading the first installment. (Graphic novel. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64595-041-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Pixel+Ink
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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