NNEWTS By Doug Tennapel – NOT RECOMMENDED

Tennapel, Doug  NNEWTS 192 pgs. GRAPHIX, 2015. $10.99 Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G Violence: G GRAPHIC NOVEL

Herk is a Nnewt with extra small legs. He looks forward to the day when he can leave the water and spend more time with his dad, who is a mage. When their home village is attacked by Lizzarks, Herk must take off on his own, his whole family killed. He managed a variety of ways to navigate land and sometimes travels by water, which has dangers of his own. The bad guys will stop at nothing to track him, including turning an old friend into a monster. When a famed magician offers him a way to get the legs he was meant to have, is a trap or can Herk find a way to change his life?

I was reviewing an uncorrected proof and the print on the artwork was so dark that I had a hard time following the story. I thought parts were confusing all the same. I would swear that Herk had taken to the water again, but then see him in the next panel, comforting his fallen steed on land. The part where his family goes to ‘heaven’ is super super weird, poetic, and long. I was a bit confused about the motives of the bad guys, why were they after Herk so much? I wouldn’t add this graphic novel to my library.  

EL (K-3) – NOT RECOMMENDED Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.