Amulet 1 & 2 by Kazu Kibuishi

Amulet: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
published January 2008 by Scholastic
192 pages (paperback), middle grade

Back cover:

After a family tragedy, Emily, Navin, and their mother move to an ancestral home to start a new life. On the family's very first night in the mysterious house, Em and Navin's mom is kidnapped by a tentacled creature. Now it's up to Em and Navin to figure out how to set things right and save their mother's life!

What's missing from this summary is that the family finds itself in an alternate world by way of their new home's basement, an alternate world in which Em and Navin's presumed lost great-grandfather resides with a secret that will change all of their lives.

The story itself is quite engaging and action-packed. And I absolutely love the illustrations. I don't presume to know how to write about graphic novels. I don't know why this book appealed to me particularly - no more than the happy feeling I get when I read it and pore over the illustrations. It's all very mysterious to me, the process of drawing it all out, the decisions made regarding style and layout and colors. All I can say is, they were good decisions in this case! But I can talk about the story and that I did enjoy very much. Oh, how I love to think about alternate universes and realities! Emily and Navin, sister and brother, are likable and relatable children who are merely trying to save their mother from a large, squishy octopus-looking monster. Who knew that their new basement was a portal to another world? They're brave and unphased by the strangeness all around them, determined to free their mom and get back home.

Amulet: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi
published January 2009 by Scholastic
224 pages (paperback), middle grade

Yes, Emily and Navin save their mother, but unfortunately she's been poisoned, and they need to travel to another town to see a doctor for a possible antidote. The journey would take too long on foot, and they do not have any vehicles left - except of course, their house. Their house! Um yeah, that's ridiculously cool.

While The Stonekeeper introduced us to the Amulet series' characters, The Stonekeeper's Curse delves deeper into the story of the amulet itself (which was found by Emily in Book 1) and the powers it can have over its keeper. Not to mention the keeper's role in saving this town from the rule of the Elves!

This book was much more striking in its illustrations than the first. There was more variation and saturation of colors - blues and greys for the Elves, bright white tinged with pink for the amulet's power, and tons of reds and oranges for the village scenes. And four awesome pages of black with eye slits for a return to consciousness - this was too cool.

Overall, I would highly recommend this series to upper elementary/middle school students. I don't think I need to say it, but I will anyway - fans of Bone will definitely gobble this one up. I don't normally pick up graphic novels that are drawn in this style, but I'm glad I read these two. I'm only sorry that the third volume isn't out yet!

Other reviews:
100 Scope Notes, A Year of Reading, Read About Comics, Omnivoracious

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
published October 2009 by Hyperion
506 pages (hardcover), YA

First, I'd like to apologize to myself for having waited so long to read this book. I admit that the length scared me and that I returned it to the library a few times without reading it. Young adult novels are just too darn long - my happy place is at about 250 pages, so I think my hesitation was at least a little justified.

Except that I read, I devoured, this book in a day and a half. Besides eating and a little bit of sleeping, I devoted myself to this story, and I can't imagine having read it in any other way. For a short though incomplete plot summary, check out my Goodreads review (scroll down to my updates) because I can't do that here. Here I must just gush.

There are some books that are totally captivating - can't put them down, forget about the real world, this is more important. I should not be surprised that Chima has done it yet again for me. Her Warrior/Wizard/Dragon Heir trilogy hooked me. I knew that The Demon King would be good. But I didn't know that it would be THAT good. I have to confess that I probably don't give fantasy stories and authors as much credit as they deserve. In the end, I'm happy with a story where I can escape to new worlds, meet fairies and princesses, and travel back home safely and at a distance from it all. I don't consider these books life-changing, other than the fact that they give me peace and comfort, and when I think about award-winning books, fantasies don't generally make it. But those opinions are behind me now, and I hope that others can begin to see the value of these stories based on the creativity and skill it takes to create such complex situations and characters.

Back to the book, The Demon King is a story with many stories. It takes place in the Seven Realms where magic and earth-bound gifts must balance each other. Where a queen may rule with a High Wizard at her side but where wizards must be limited in their power by the clans and their matriarchs. Princess Raisa is the young heir to the queendom, dually interested in play and duty. She has spent her whole life in Fellsmarch Castle, rarely drifting past its walls. One act of kindness sends her into a shady neighborhood, and then kidnapped by a former streetlord who is trying his best to keep himself and his family alive. Han Alister sees himself as a nobody, but everyone else recognizes him as a somebody - someone to fear, someone to catch, and someone to believe in. These are mere glimpses into The Demon King, meaningless without context, without the superior word-work of Chima. How she weaves together these two characters' stories so seamlessly is beyond me. Just as I was getting to know Han and his meager life, I was swept away into the Castle to meet Princess Raisa, a sweet girl with good intentions and also with a strong head on her shoulders and instinct for trouble. She's powerless but cunning, and she won't sit back and let things happen around her. Such depth in these characters! I feel I'm getting to a rambling point, so I'll just say that I loved this book in more ways than I can convey and will undoubtedly read it again before the second book in the trilogy is released. Yeah, it's a trilogy. Oh, how I love those trilogies.

And I was right - this book does indeed make it to my Best of 2009 list.