comic book fantasy | Red Reading Hub – Jillrbennett's Reviews of Children's Books

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Blue Bottle Mystery
Kathy Hoopmann, Rachael Smith & Mike Medaglia
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Subtitled ‘An Asperger Adventure’ this is essentially a graphic novel for primary/younger secondary age children adapted from the original fantasy story published some fifteen years ago. Herein we meet Ben who has Asperger’s syndrome and his pal Andy who doesn’t. Their discovery of a blue flask (they dig it up in the school yard) and the uncorking of same with the traditional three wishes they make, unleashes all kinds of surprising events in their lives. Ben then passes the bottle on to his teacher, Miss Browning-Lever who seems to be suffering from mood swings, in the hope it cheers her up.

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Not long after, Ben and his dad who is a widower, win a fortune on the lottery (thanks to Ben’s new pattern) – wish number one. Then Andy announces that he’s had a sudden growth spurt – school basketball team, here he comes – that’s wish number two taken care of. And number three? The boys are unable to recall what that was: surely not the blowing up of their arch enemies – or was it? Could it have been the destruction of their school perhaps?

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Suffice it to say that all ends happily albeit somewhat surprisingly but to tell would make me a story-spoiler so … let’s just say Ben gets his Asperger’s diagnosis and there’s something new for Ben’s dad too.
Assuredly this is a book that offers an explanation of aspects of Asperger’s Syndrome in a fun way making it accessible to a wide range of readers, especially those (on the spectrum or not) who have a particular passion for visuals. I have to say I was somewhat troubled by Ben’s dad having a go at him about his ‘flapping’ …

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and some of his other behaviours – thank goodness for his more understanding Gran. But I guess that is part of life for some youngsters on the spectrum.
All in all though, this is a perceptive, optimistic story that artfully weaves information relating to the condition throughout. It should find a place on the classroom shelves of all primary schools and in lower secondary libraries: those who read it will one hopes come away with a greater understanding of what it is to be ‘an aspie’. Let’s hear it for individuality and difference, and the way such characteristics can enrich the lives of us all.
You can order directly from the publishers JKP

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Pablo & Jane and the Hot Air Contraption
José Domingo
Flying Eye Books
Right from the amazing cover and those endpapers you suspect you’re in for a treat with this one and truly you are. The whole thing is pretty mind-boggling and no review can really do justice to it – you’ll just need to get hold of your own copy and see for yourself.
It all begins one dull Sunday afternoon with adventure loving Jane and her rather killjoy sibling Pablo having run out of things to do and places to go; well maybe not quite the latter: there’s still that ‘old house on the hill’ reputedly radio-active and monster-filled. Jane’s keen to go of course, Pablo not quite so …

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Once inside they discover – or rather, are led to – an amazing hot air-power machine.

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Having ventured within, they’re suddenly zapped into the Monster Dimension. And thanks to the dastardly saboteur Felinibus, the contraption cannot move without its missing pieces. So it’s a case of find those parts and fix the machine or be forever trapped in another reality and it’s here in Lopsided London that the help of readers is called for to track down the first of the missing parts.

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Here too, the tricky feline gives her pursuers the slip so the search for her and further vital parts moves to Nocturnal Norway with its bone-crunching trolls, thence to Terrifying Transylvania with its villainous vampires, Monstrous Moscow, Ageless Athens, Macabre Marrakesh, Muerto Mexico populated by skeletons, Bone-Chilling Bayou where voodoo rules, Horrid Hawaii with those drumming tiki men, the ‘Orrible Outback (those drooling koalas look pretty scary), Treacherous Thailand – eleven missing parts to find in a temple there, and finally, Immortal India where a war is raging between the monkey king and the demon army.

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Each of these dazzling locations has its own amazing double spread crammed to overflowing with brilliantly conceived images to feast your eyes on.
The shift between full-page spreads and comic strip works wonderfully well in this fast-moving adventure cum game of hide-and-seek cum quest (ending with the children’s safe return home). It’s chock full of delicious alliteration, mind-stretching vocabulary and has intertextual links aplenty in those action packed scenes.
And, with its slight hint of more adventures to come, who could ask for more?

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Certainly not this reviewer (who is still searching for some of the missing parts) nor those excited eight to ten year olds from whose enthusiastic clutches I had to prise my copy.
In a word, awesome.

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Fabulous Children’s Book Illustration Autumn exhibition at Waterstones, Piccadilly 23rd-29th October

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