Amulet Book 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Graphix/Scholastic, $9.99, ~208pp, tp, 9780439846806. YA graphic novel. On-sale date: January 2008.
Emily and her parents are in the car, on the way to pick up her younger brother, when it crashes off a cliff. Emily and her mother survive, but her father, unable to escape the car, dies. And thus begins the story.
Two years later, Mom, Emily, and brother Navin are moving out of the city to somplace cheaper: a huge, old, abandoned house that’s been in the family for a while. Seems Mom’s grandfather was the last person seen in it, but then he disappeared.
As they’re cleaning it out, they discover a gateway to another dimension, or an alternate universe, and there the story truly begins. Seems great-grandpa isn’t dead yet, but he won’t be around to help rescue Mom. Fortunately, he was an inventor and the keeper of some sort of power, which he’s bestowed on Emily, and the chase is on. It says right on the cover “book 1,” and it’s clearly going to be a continuing story/adventure, but while there’s a cliffhanger of sorts at the end, it’s also an ending that completes a story line, so there is a sense of closure, even as we know things are just getting started.
It’s a mythic adventure for children, with hidden powers, strange monsters, odd allies, and a whole new world to explore. And it’s engrossing. I can’t comment at great length on the art, because it isn’t all finished yet, but what art I did see adds to the story and fills in lots of details. This is definitely one to get for the younger reader looking for some good fanastical graphic novel-reading material. Recommended.