NORDLYS

Reimagining Peter Pan through a Scandinavian lens, this translated series opener from Norway sends 14-year-old Sonja through a magic portal for encounters with trolls, talking animals, witches, and a Viking earl with a prosthetic hand in the form of a silver hook.

The night after Sonja’s confirmation, a source of unhappiness for the free-spirited, outdoorsy girl, who doesn’t want to settle down, the northern lights dance across the sky above her village. She awakens and encounters Espen, an oddly familiar boy with pointed ears and a tail whom she recognizes from her beloved peripatetic uncle’s drawings. Espen tells her that he’s from another place, somewhere the trolls and Vikings Uncle Henrik draws really exist, and Sonja flies away with him through a portal. But when Uncle Henrik shows up to rescue her, he’s immediately captured and thrown into a dungeon by hostile trolls. The art includes strongly atmospheric forest landscapes and magical characters ranging from magnificently frightening monsters to enigmatic figures in eerie masks. The dialogue has a colloquial flavor with flashes of mischief: Espen is “kind of like a mother,” says one troll. “More like a weird uncle,” says another. The open ending will leave readers anticipating the next volume. Most human and humanoid characters present white; in place of Barrie’s original Native Americans, this world includes a girl who is cued as Sámi.

A spin on a familiar classic that gets off to a strong start.