Booklog: The Amulet 1-2 (Kibuishi)

[nebroadwe]

Kazu Kibuishi, The Amulet 1: The Stonekeeper and The Amulet 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse

"Not everybody wants to be a hero, Leon."
"But they should."
Two years after their father's death in a car accident, Emily and Navin move to their great-grandfather's dilapidated country house, shut up since he disappeared many years before. Their mother insists that if they work together, they can make it a home, but Emily isn't so sure. Then she and Navin discover a mysterious amulet hidden in their great-grandfather's library that warns them of approaching danger. Too late to save their mother from capture by a cephalopod-like monster, Emily uses the power of the amulet to follow the creature into the parallel world of Alledia. There she and Navin discover that their great-grandfather was a Stonekeeper, the former master of the amulet, whose full strength can even turn back time to grant its possessor's heart's desire. All Emily and Navin want is to save their mother and return home, but by inheriting the amulet, they've also inherited their great-grandfather's allies and enemies, all of whom have their own plans for the stone ... not to mention the stone's own plans ...

Both I and my grade-school godchildren are hooked on this series and lamenting its rather slow pace of release (v. 1 appeared two-and-a-half years ago; v. 3 is due out sometime this fall). But if it takes Kibuishi that long to get it as right as he does, I can't complain: his art is fluid and expressive and his story well-paced, interweaving humor and drama. Emily and Navin are typical heroes for this sort of adventure: reader surrogates whose emerging powers build on a foundation of familial love, stubborness, and video-game-developed reflexes. Their supporting cast is awesome -- Kibuishi is clearly having fun with character design and world-building, so we see great-grandfather Silas's vaguely steampunky, robot-by-way-of-household-appliance-and-stuffed-animal servants, parachute mushrooms and talking trees, monsters with far too many tentacles for comfort, humans cursed to devolve into animals ("Hmm, I'm afraid you're right ... you're turning into a slug ..."), and the faceless elf-king, a former Stonekeeper devoured by his Stone's power, and his rebellious heir (who's giving off something of a Prince Zuko vibe). Two volumes in, we're still getting backstory exposition, but it's clear that Alledia is in the kind of deep trouble for which Emily and Navin (especially Emily, as her Stone's would-be master) are kill-or-cure. It's a nice touch that control of a Stone is not a one-and-done process, but a continuous challenge that grows with the Stonekeeper's access to his or her Stone's power. I foresee more than one moment of truth ahead for our heroes. Highly recommended.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Sounds very interesting - is it manga or actual book or graphic novel? I think I'd be likely to go looking for something like this.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

It's a graphic novel -- Kibuishi's an American of Japanese descent. (You really have to love a guy who decides that the elves' weakness is their utter abhorrence of fish. So, when you've got to sneak the commandos in the Trojan garbage van past the suspicious guard ...)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

OoOOO. I wonder if my library has it or can get it....

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

It's got ALA recommendations and is published by Scholastic, so you've got an excellent chance.