From School Library Journal
Grade 4–8—The first book is a high-action title with a simple plot. Steve's first hot-air balloon trip with his cousins turns into a dangerous outing. When the get kids into the basket, Uncle Harry has a heart attack and drops the mooring rope, the balloon gets free, and Steve must figure out what to do as the balloon goes out over the sea. The art is uninspiring, but easy to interpret and follow, so it serves the purpose. In the second book, Andy is plagued by nightmares of being attacked by ravens just before going to kayaking camp. When he arrives at Greystone Grange, he finds that it is near the ruins of an old mansion, with many ravens flying about. He makes a few friends, but finds an enemy in a trainee instructor who tells him menacing stories about the house and the birds. He begins to wonder if Jack is simply a sleepwalking bully, or if he is somehow supernaturally tied to the house and the birds. The content and creepiness are suitable for middle school readers, but the character development and plotting leave much to be desired. The artwork is course and dark, suiting the tone of the story, but not highly appealing. Both books have a few sentences of text. These titles will work as additional purchases for school libraries working with reluctant readers, but they're not for standard graphic-novel collections. Public libraries can pass on them.—
Dawn Rutherford, King County Library System, Bellevue, WA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Book Description
The third set of four in this lively new series of comic strip novels for younger readers. Comix are aimed at 7-9 year olds, particularly though not exclusively boys, and children who find reading hard work. The subject matter is pacy and exciting and the main characters are usually boys, and there is plenty of action and dialogue to keep the story moving. Feisty heros and heroines use quick-thinking tactics to get them out of all kinds of scrapes and dilemmas. The series is aimed at developing reading ability and the text is integrated with illustrations using the comic strip conventions of speech bubbles, thought bubbles and sound effects. Established authors have written a variety of tales - adventure, science fiction and fantasy, comedy and football stories. All the titles have been illustrated by the best strip-cartoon artists around. The resulting combination is a visually-exciting series that should get any 7-9 year-old reading no matter how reluctant they have been to pick up a book in the past.
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