Snarky and fun the first time through, and in this form too.
Hoping to head off an impending move to the city, Hilda makes peace with her tiny, invisible neighbors.
Recast into prose from Luke Pearson’s Hildafolk comics and scheduled for release in conjunction with an upcoming animated series, this episodic tale records the intrepid, blue-haired young adventurer’s encounters with a troll, a pair of truly “huge-mongous” giants, and a community of thumb-sized elves whose newly elected prime minister is out to evict her and her single mom from their wilderness home as oversized nuisances. Though the faintly Scandinavian setting is contemporary (at one point Hilda’s mother, a graphic designer, drives her into urban Trolberg), Hilda’s quest to negotiate a deal with the elven king and the tests of courage and cleverness she undergoes along the way definitely cast her in the traditional heroic mold. The supporting cast is likewise ostensibly folkloric but dished up with a few twists—the elves, drawn Keebler-style with little pointy hats in Miller’s frequent two-color cartoon drawings, are addicted to forms and paperwork, for instance, and a tiny wooden sprite who pops up occasionally to make rude comments turns out to enjoy books and cool jazz. Multiple near disasters and hairbreadth rescues later, Hilda and her mother have to move anyway after a giant heedlessly steps on their cottage. Still, magical adventures aplenty wait in the city.
Snarky and fun the first time through, and in this form too. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-44-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake.
Promising myth-adventures aplenty, this kickoff episode introduces young Zeus, “a very special, yet clueless godboy.”
After 10-year-old Zeus is plucked from his childhood cave in Crete by armed “Cronies” of the Titan king, Cronus, he is rescued by harpies. He then finds himself in a Grecian temple where he acquires a lightning bolt with the general personality of a puppy and receives hints of his destiny from an Oracle with fogged eyeglasses. Recaptured and about to be eaten by Cronus, Zeus hurls the bolt down the Titan’s throat—causing the king to choke and then, thanks to an alert Crony’s Heimlich maneuver, to barf up several previously eaten Olympians. Spooning in numerous ingredients from the origin myth’s traditional versions, the veteran authors whip up a smooth confection, spiced with both gross bits and contemporary idiom (“ ‘Eew!’ a voice shrieked. ‘This is disgusting!’ ”) and well larded with full-page illustrations (not seen). One thorough washing later, off marches the now-cocky lad with new allies Poseidon and Hera, to rescue more Olympians in the next episode.
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5787-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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