Amulet:The Stonekeeper - Kazu Kibuishi

Image accessed 18/6/13

 

Kibuishi, K. (2008) Amulet: The Stonekeeper, Graphix, USA.

 

Amulet: The Stonekeeper was written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi and is the first of 5 graphic novels in the Amulet series. In addition to The Stonekeeper, there is The Stonekeeper's Curse, The Cloud Searchers, The Last Council and Prince of the Elves. Amulet is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Years 6-9. 

 

A tragic accident claims the life of Emily and Navin's father. In her grief and due to financial worries, their mother leaves the family home and instead seeks refuge in a house owned by her great-grandfather. The house is very dirty and in a state of disrepair. There is so much work to be done to clean it up and make it livable for the family but together they tackle the mess.

 

While they are looking around their new home, we are introduced to mysterious creatures looking through vents and creeping around the house (image accessed 18/6/13). During their investigations, Navin and Emily find a beautiful stone necklace which Emily immediately puts on and claims as her own.

 

Throughout the night, the necklace awakens and warns Emily that her family is in danger. True to its word, Emily's mum is swollowed by a monster in the basement. In a race against time, Emily must accept the power of the Amulet bestowed on her by her great-grandfather. Can she harness the power and accept the help she needs from her great-grandfather's friends (image accessed 18/6/13) to save her mother's life?

 

 

 

 

 

 



Twisted Journeys #2: Escape from Pyramid X - Dan Jolley

Image accessed on 11/4/13

Jolley, D. (2007) Twisted Journey #2: Escape from Pyramid X, Lerner Publishing Group, USA.

Twisted Journey #2: Escape from Pyramid X was written by Dan Jolley and illustrated by Matt Wendt. There are another 21 graphic novels in this series, the first four are: #1 Captured by Pirates, #2 Escape from Pyramid X, #3 Terror in Ghost Mansion and #4 The Treasure of Mount Fate. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

The series is called Twisted Journeys because the reader is the one who chooses what happens next. When you get to the end of a chapter, you get to choose between 2-3 different storylines to see where the story will take you next, image accessed 11/4/13.

The story starts by explaining how 6 students from around the world have been chosen for a wonderful opportunity to visit Egypt and see Pyramid X on a tour with the famous Professor Emil Snackport!

The Professor starts the tour by entering Pyramid X with the children. He mentions on page 6 that there are many rumours flying around about the pyramid, like the presence of ruthless evil creatures, image accessed on 11/4/13 and strange wizards.  By the time you as a reader are walking down the dark and mysterious passageway, you are faced with your first two choices. What will you choose? The rest of the story is up to you!

If you like this author visit, other books written by Dan Jolley. 

And for more choose your own adventure books, visit the Twisted Journeys series. 




Asterix: The Gaul - Rene Goscinny

Image accessed 11/4/13

Goscinny, R. (1961) Asterix: The Gaul, Orion Publishing Group, UK.

Asterix: The Gaul is a very amusing classic graphic novel. It was first published in 1961 and is still popular today. Asterix was written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

The year is set on page 3 as being 50BC! Gaul is being occupied by the Romans except for one small village, image accessed 11/4/13.

Asterix is described on page 4 as being a hero and a very shrewd little warrior. He gets superhuman strength from a magic potion which is brewed by the village Druid, Getafix. Obelix is Asterix's very strong best friend who goes on every adventure with him and Obleix has a little companion and plant loving dog, Dogmatix, image accessed 11/4/13.

The little village of Gaul has the Roman troops baffled. They cannot understand how its inhabiants keep defeating them in battle as they are so small and always outnumbered. They recognise they have superhuman strength and try to work out how they are getting this strength because this is the only way that they will be able to defeat them and take over their village.

The soldiers come up with a brilliant plan to infiltrate the village with a soldier-turned-spy to try and learn the secret of their superhuman strength, image accessed 11/4/13. The spy works for a time but is soon found out by Asterix. When the soldiers realise that the spy trick will not work, they kidnap the Druid so they can get some of the magic potion made for themselves.

Will the Druid withstand the torture and keep his secrets? Will Asterix be able to save him so the whole village will remain safe?

Visit the Offical Asterix Webpage to learn more about this series of books, watch animated movies and play online games.

Ultimate Spiderman: Power and Responsibility - Brian Michael Bendis

Image accessed 8/4/13

Bendis, B.M. (2000) Ultimate Spiderman: Power and Responsibility, Marvel Publishing Inc, USA.

Ultimate Spiderman: Power and Responsibility was written and adapted by Brian Michael Bendis, co-adapted by Bill Jemas and illustrated by Mark Bagley. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

Like my previous review of Batman, Spiderman, image accessed 8/4/13, has also recently been made into a movie franchise which has created a renewed interest in the superhero. It has had multiple comic book adaptations, television shows as well as graphic novels and computer games. The plot of the 2012 movie, The Amazing Spiderman follows this graphic novel very closely.

The novel begins with an introduction to Osborn Industries. Norman Osborn who eventually becomes The Green Goblin, image accessed 9/4/13, is testing a new wonder drug called O2. The unexplained drug has had some very good testing results on spiders and he finds this very exciting.

Peter Parker who is the alter-ego of Spiderman is shown as being weak and bullied at school. His parents were killed in a plane crash and he lives with his aunt and uncle. 

Peter's class goes on an excursion to Osborn Industries, where the class is attacked by spiders. Peter is bitten by a spider and collapses. Peter seemingly recovers but starts having some unusual side effects, like superhuman strength, tougher skin, increased muscle tone, acrobatic skills, sticky fingers and finally the ability to spin and shoot webs.

Peter grows increasingly angry and frustrated at the world. His relationship with his aunt and uncle suffers greatly. After a fight with Peter, his uncle is robbed and subsequently killed. This leads to Peter harnessing his gifts and deciding to use his powers to fight crime. He learns about the evil Green Goblin when he attacks Peter's school. This is when Peter's crime fighting adventure really begins. Can he overcome The Green Goblin?

Marvel publishes many different superhero characters. Visit the Marvel Spiderman character page to learn more about Spiderman's adventures. 

The site also details characters such as Thor, Wolverine and Captain America. You can learn more about these Marvel characters by browsing on the Marvel home page.

The Batman Strikes! Crime Time - Bill Matheny

Image accessed 6/4/13

Matheny, B. (2005) The Batman Strikes! Crime Time, DC Comics, Canada.

The Batman Strikes! Crime Time was written by Bill Matheny, illustrated by Terry Beatty and Christopher Jones and coloured by Heroic Age. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

This graphic novel has 5 sub-stories, Penguin Rising, City of Bats, Outlaw and Disorder, Without a Chance and Deadly Partner.

Bruce Wayne is the alter-ego of the superhero Batman, image accessed 8/4/13. He has a butler named Alfred who is his only family as both of his parents were killed. Alfred always insists on calling Bruce, Sir. Much to his annoyance! 

Batman has had many characterisations over the years including television shows with both real people and animation, movies, video games, books and comics.  

SKREEEEEE!!!

City of Bats begins with an introduction to Dr Kirk Langstrom who is formulating a potion which will turn him into a Man Bat, image accessed 8/4/13 and video accessed 8/4/13. 



Using his bat sound SKREEEEE and serum which he spews from his mouth, Langstrom can turn people into evil bats like himself,

Can Batman work out where Langstrom has kept his formula so he can make an antidote to stop him before he takes over Gotham City?

The stories in this book are all short and introduce a new nemesis in each one. Penguin Rising features the Penguin, Outlaw and Disorder features the Joker, Without a Chance features Bane and Deadly Partner features Mr Scar Face.

There are 4 other graphic novels to read in The Batman Strikes series.

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

Image accessed 5/4/13

Colfer, E. (2007) Artemis Fowl, Penguin Group, England. 

Artemis Fowl was written and adapted by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin. The art was created by Giovanni Rigano and the colour by Paolo Lamanna. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

Colfer describes Artemis Fowl on page 1 as being a 12 year old genius who has chosen to dedicate himself to criminal activities. He is definitely a genius! He is definitely a mastermind! He is definitely a criminal! But is he more a villain or a hero?

Artemis is determined to win back his family fortune. With his father missing and his mother mentally ill, Artemis has to rely on his bodyguard, Butler and friend, Juliet to help him on his quest. 

Artemis wants to get his hands on fairy gold but in order to do that, he needs to find and decode The Fairy Book to learn how to exploit the weaknesses of the fairies. The Fairy Book helps him to capture an elf named Holly Short, image accessed 5/4/13, who is a Recon Officer with magical fairy powers of healing. 

Artemis plans to use Holly as a bargaining chip to get the gold. But before he can, he must fight trolls and angry elves. It seems that fairy magic is essential for this mission. Will he get the gold or is there something more important that he also wants? 

There are eight books in the Artemis Fowl series, three of which have been turned into graphic novels - The Artic Incident and The Eternity Code are the other two. 

Visit the official Artemis Fowl website to learn more about this series. 

Goosebumps: Creepy Creatures - R.L. Stine

Image accessed 4/4/13

Stine, R.L. (2006) Goosebumps: Creepy Creatures, Graphix, USA.

Three books in one! 

The first story is The Werewolf of Fever Swamp - adapted and illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez. The second story is The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight - adapted and illustrated by Greg Ruth. And the final story is The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena - adapted and illustrated by Scott Morse. This book is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

For this review, I will concentrate on the second story - The Scarecrow Walks at Night, image accessed 4/4/13. Jodie and Mark visit their grandparents on their farm in the summer holidays. Stanley, the farmhand is heard mumbling in the car about 'the book' and 'the scarecrow walks at midnight'. 

The children start to notice strange things around the farm, worms in the corn, scarecrows seemingly moving on their own and their grandparents behaving very strangely. Not understanding what is going on, Mark and Jodie start to investigate and uncover the secrets of 'the book'...

Will they be able to stop the scarecrows? What secrets is Stanley hiding?

Read on and discover the other two stories also - you will need to sleep with the light on for this graphic novel!!!

If you are interested in reading more of the Goosebumps Graphix series, there are two more graphic novels, Terror Trips and Scary Summer.

 Visit graphic novels by R.L. Stine to find out more about them.

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

Image accessed 4/4/13

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1990) The Hobbit - An illustrated edition of the fantasy classic, Random House Publishing Group, USA. 

The graphic novel edition of The Hobbit was adapted by Charles Dixon and Sean Deming and illustrated by David Wenzel. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

As The Hobbit was originally published in 1965, hobbits have been depicted in many different ways over the years through book covers and movies. According to J.R.R. Tolkien on page 1, image accessed 4/4/13, a hobbit is a little person, smaller than a dwarf. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach, dress in bright colours, wear no shoes because they have leathery soles of their feet and have thick warm brown hair.                                                   

This is a story of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who lives in a place called The Valley of Rivendale. Baggins was not an adventurous hobbit, much preferring the quiet life. One day he was visited by a wizard called Gandalf, image accessed 4/4/13, who invited him on an adventure. Not too pleased with this invitation as he wasn't a brave sort, he declined very quickly.

Gandalf didn't give up though! With the allure of stolen money, jewels and untold wealth, Bilbo armed with a map, key and the company of dwarves decides that he will join Gandalf on the dangerous quest to Middle Earth to reclaim the treasure now guarded by dragons.

Needing bravery beyond his wildest dreams, Bilbo's adventure brings forth confrontations with trolls, stone giants, goblins, evil wolves, giant spiders and fire breathing dragons. Can he overcome his fears and help win back the stolen treasure?  

The Hobbit is a prelude to the J.R.R. Tolkien's series, The Lord of the Rings. There are three books in this series - Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Together with The Hobbit, they have also been recently made into movies.

To learn more about this series, visit J.R.R. Tolkien's best books.

Doctor Who: The Ripper - Tony Lee

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Lee, T. (2011) Doctor Who: The Ripper, IDW Publishing, USA.

Doctor Who has a cult following among a wide variety of people both young and old. The franchise has spawned multiple television series, video games, movies, as well as books, comics and graphic novels!

Doctor Who: The Ripper was written by Tony Lee with art work by Andrew Currie, Richard Piers Rayner, Horacio Domingues and Tim Hamilton. It follows the Doctor as he travels to London in 1888 with Amy Pond and Rory Williams through the TARDIS. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

A modern explanation of the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) can be seen in this YouTube video, Doctor Who: New Tardis Introduction 2012/13, Accessed 3/4/13:

The Ripper starts with a comedy of errors by Rory. He accidentally syncs his phone to the TARDIS and it downloads all of the spam emails he's ever received as Holograms. All of their emails are now talking to them trying to sell them pills and get them to change their insurance policies!

Rory thinks it would be a good idea to visit London in 1888 as this was the year that the Football League started. Together with Amy and the Doctor, the trio land in 1888 but instead of a quiet street, they find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation with the prime suspect being The Ripper.

The doctor detects Kyron Radiation which means the murderer could be a shape shifting alien. Can they solve the mystery in time before anyone else gets killed? 

To find more books from this author visit, books by Tony Lee. 

And to search for books from the series visit, Doctor Who books.

Ghostopolis - Doug TenNapel

Image accessed 3/4/13

TenNapel, D. (2010) Ghostopolis, Graphix, USA.

Ghostopolis is an exciting and adventurous graphic novel written and drawn by Doug TenNapel. It is on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

Frank Gallows is a tired and lazy investigator for the Department of Supernatural Immigration Task Force. He is charged with making sure that there are no ghosts among the living! When he finds rogue ghosts here on Earth, he uses a machine to send the ghosts back to their rightful home, Ghostopolis.

While chasing a ghost horse lead, Frank accidentally sends both the horse and a terminally ill teenager called Garth Hale to Ghostopolis. Unfortunately for Garth, the only way for the living to get to Ghostopolis to rescue him is via a machine called a Chronoplasmere - which needs 3 days to charge with enough power to travel!

Still living and wanting to stay that way, Garth finds himself in this strange and dangerous afterlife. With the skeleton horse, image accessed 5/4/13, that he affectionately names Skinny by his side, Frank must negotiate this new world called Ghostopolis.

Follow Garth's journey as he flees dinosaurs, fights mummies and giant killer flying insects and tries to save Ghostopolis from their evil leader, the Bone King. Will he save Ghostopolis? Will he get home?

To see other graphic novels written by this author, visit Doug TenNapel's web page.



 

Stormbreaker - Anthony Horowitz

Image accessed 2/4/13

Horowitz, A.(2006) Stormbreaker, Walker Books, UK. 

  

Stormbreaker is the first of four graphic novels adapted by Antony Johnston from Anthony Horowitz's very popular Alex Rider novel series. The artwork was created by Kanako Damerum and Yuzuru Takasaki. 

Alex Rider is a 14 year old teenage spy agent who starts working for MI6 after the death of his only remaining relative, Uncle Ian Rider. Alex is orphaned as a young boy and his Uncle Ian looks after him with the help of his housekeeper, Jack. Jack and Alex are unaware that Ian is in fact a secret agent spy, not the banker they believe him to be, image accessed 5/4/13. 

After Ian is murdered, Alex is propositioned to work for MI6 to continue his Uncle's secret agent work. While initially very reluctant, his arm is twisted because they threaten to send Jack away as her visa has expired. Fearing losing his only remaining family, Jack agrees to work as a MI6 agent.

Armed with inconspicuous teenage gadgets, such as zit cream which also double as weapons, Alex takes on an assignment to work out what Stormbreaker is and how to stop it!

 This action packed graphic novel was made into a movie and a video game was also released. Further graphic novels by Anthony Horowitz in the Alex Rider series include, Point Blanc, Skeleton Key and Eagle Strike. All of these graphic novels are on the Premier's Reading Challenge Year 6-9.

To find out more about Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, visit the official Anthony Horowitz web page.

To find books which are similar in style to Anthony Horowitz, visit authors like Anthony Horowitz - Registration is required with lovereading4kids but worthwhile!