Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Newsprints by Ru Xu -ADVISABLE

Xu, Ru  Newsprints 208 pgs. GRAPHIC NOVEL.  Scholastic, 2017. $24.99  Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G Violence: PG

Blue is a newsboy with a secret, Blue is really a girl. She is passionate about the news and loves working with her adopted family of newsboys. Her country is at war, so there is lots of news to report. She meets a mysterious inventor and starts helping him solve a mystery. Blue has a best friend that is a bird named Goldie, she when she meets an even more mysterious boy who has a way with crows, it’s a natural friendship. But both of them aren’t who they appear to be and Blue just wants to be accepted for herself. She quickly finds herself caught up in the biggest new story of the year.

This was a fun sort of steampunk graphic novel that had heart. This was an uncorrected edition, so only a few pages were color but those were SO lovely. The rest was in black and white and some of the action was hard to read, though in the final version, I assume it will be full color. I found myself feeling like I was reading an anime movie. The plot may be challenging for younger readers, especially since it has a lot to do with newspapers and in a survey of two 3rd grade classes, they didn’t know what those were, but upper elementary and middle school will enjoy this book.

EL, MS –ADVISABLE Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.

No comments: