In this story, Henrietta finds herself an orphan but then brought to receive a massive inheritance from an uncle she knew nothing about. There’s just one problem. The war that made her an orphan has somehow continued inside the massive “house” that she now owns. This first installment raises far more questions than it answers but does an excellent job in establishing the world and the primary characters. I don’t know if I will ever continue but I’m definitely interested.
I definitely want to find more in this series. The author uses the first ever “robot” – a bird named Puli (I think) – to act as the narrator guiding the reader through the different developments of robots and drones in an engaging way. I will definitely put this on my classroom shelves.
This book forms part of a series of graphic novels that tell the story of various events from American history told, supposedly, by the American Revolutionary figure Nathan Hale – yes, the author shares the same name – while he stands on the hangman’s platform. This particular narrative tells the story of Dolittle’s raid, a tactical failure but psychological success, an event seen as a
turning point in the war in the Pacific in World War II. This event worked much better in this format than the doomed Donner party. While I still think that the proportion of words to illustration leans too much towards words, I know that the topic will appeal to many of my reluctant male readers so this book will have a place on my classroom shelves.
This installment picks up immediately following teh events of book one. For that reason I will avoid discussion of the plot which limits the review a bit. That being said, I actually enjoyed this installment more than the first since now the pieces are in place and things can start to unfold. I can see why so many kids enjoy these books.
I had planned to wait until I read the first two books to read this physical copy that I found in the book room at my school. Unfortunately – likely because this is an older series – I could not find any ebook copies of those installments so I just read this one. Bad idea. I handicapped myself this way since these plots are rather interconnected. That aside, aspects of the artwork disturbed me, mainly the discrepancies between how Smith drew
the “bone” characters and how he drew the human characters, especially the young girl. I likely will not go back and attempt to find the first two and just cut my losses.
I did not expect what I got in this book based on the awards printed on the front. At various points in the narrative I found myself really engaged and a little hopeful. At other points the narrative felt uncomfortable and made me wonder why the author included those scenes. Unfortunately, I did not end up enjoying this book that had potential and will not add it to my classroom shelves.
