A teenager rewrites her story in this enchanting yarn.
In Willis and Andelfinger’s graphic novel, a high schooler finds herself thrown inside her own fiction.
Brie Page just wants to get through high school being as invisible as possible so she can go home and write her stories, or listen to her podcast about writing, or think about writing. When her mother forces her out of the house to do “normal teen stuff,” Brie finds herself in front of a bookstore she’s never seen before. The very strange store owner’s name is Ambrose. When Brie confesses her teenage woes, Ambrose offers to let her buy a special pen that will supposedly help Brie in crafting her tales and escaping the real world. After fighting with her former friend Viv on the way home, Brie sits down with her new pen and starts to write three different stories, with hours passing in the blink of an eye. The next morning, Brie opens her locker at school to find a portal inside. Entering it takes her to another world with talking horses and a sorceress—and Brie herself is the queen. Knowing this is one of her yarns, Brie follows the plot, but it doesn’t quite go as she wrote it (“This was supposed to be the end of the story…and yet I’m still here!”). Hopping from one of her texts to the next, Brie starts to realize something is going on and changes her writing, pulling her family and friends into the madness. In this cleverly constructed graphic novel, Taylor and Marchbank use mostly black-and-white illustrations, switching to bright colors when Brie hops into her stories. With inspirational themes of standing up for yourself against bullies, taking charge of your own narrative, and finally finding a way to talk to your crush, this engaging story has something for everyone.
A teenager rewrites her story in this enchanting yarn.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781952303579
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Maverick
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even so, this remains Macbeth, arguably the Bard of Avon’s most durable and multilayered tragedy, and overall, this enhanced...
A pairing of the text of the Scottish Play with a filmed performance, designed with the Shakespeare novice in mind.
The left side of the screen of this enhanced e-book contains a full version of Macbeth, while the right side includes a performance of the dialogue shown (approximately 20 lines’ worth per page). This granular focus allows newcomers to experience the nuances of the play, which is rich in irony, hidden intentions and sudden shifts in emotional temperature. The set and costuming are deliberately simple: The background is white, and Macbeth’s “armor” is a leather jacket. But nobody’s dumbing down their performances. Francesca Faridany is particularly good as a tightly coiled Lady Macbeth; Raphael Nash-Thompson gives his roles as the drunken porter and a witch a garrulousness that carries an entertainingly sinister edge. The presentation is not without its hiccups. Matching the video on the right with the text on the left means routinely cutting off dramatic moments; at one point, users have to swipe to see and read the second half of a scene’s closing couplet—presumably an easy fix. A “tap to translate” button on each page puts the text into plain English, but the pop-up text covers up Shakespeare’s original, denying any attempts at comparison; moreover, the translation mainly redefines more obscure words, suggesting that smaller pop-ups for individual terms might be more meaningful.
Even so, this remains Macbeth, arguably the Bard of Avon’s most durable and multilayered tragedy, and overall, this enhanced e-book makes the play appealing and graspable to students . (Enhanced e-book. 12 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: The New Book Press LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
Using modern language, McDonald spins the well-known tale of the two young, unrequited lovers. Set against Nagar’s at-times...
A bland, uninspired graphic adaptation of the Bard’s renowned love story.
Using modern language, McDonald spins the well-known tale of the two young, unrequited lovers. Set against Nagar’s at-times oddly psychedelic-tinged backgrounds of cool blues and purples, the mood is strange, and the overall ambiance of the story markedly absent. Appealing to what could only be a high-interest/low–reading level audience, McDonald falls short of the mark. He explains a scene in an open-air tavern with a footnote—“a place where people gather to drink”—but he declines to offer definitions for more difficult words, such as “dirges.” While the adaptation does follow the foundation of the play, the contemporary language offers nothing; cringeworthy lines include Benvolio saying to Romeo at the party where he first meets Juliet, “Let’s go. It’s best to leave now, while the party’s in full swing.” Nagar’s faces swirl between dishwater and grotesque, adding another layer of lost passion in a story that should boil with romantic intensity. Each page number is enclosed in a little red heart; while the object of this little nuance is obvious, it’s also unpleasantly saccharine. Notes after the story include such edifying tidbits about Taylor Swift and “ ‘Wow’ dialogs from the play” (which culls out the famous quotes).Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-93-80028-58-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Campfire
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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