Keeper of the Lost Cities and Malcolm Kid

Messenger, Shannon, Freen, Celina (adaptor), and Chianello, Gabriella (illus.).
Keeper of the Lost Cities The Graphic Novel Part 1: Volume 1 

November 7, 2023 by Aladdin

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Sophie Foster is struggling in middle school; she can hear everyone's thoughts, and the only thing that blocks them out is listening to music, but she gets in trouble for that. While on a field trip to a museum, she runs into Fitz, who is also a telepath and has been looking for her. He tells her that she is not really, human, but an elf who has been hidden on Earth, and light leaps her from San Diego to Eternalia. Since humans are forbidden in the Lost Cities and they are dressed like them, they have to be careful. Sophie is taken to be tested for admission to the Foxfire School, and surprises the board by easily reading the mind of Bronte, who is an Ancient. She gets a reluctant mentor in Tiergan, who agrees to help her master her mind reading skills. In order to stay in this new world, she has to leave her human family, which isn't easy. She is placed with Grady and Edaline, who lost their own teen daughter years ago. There is a complex social system in place in this world, and Sophie has to learn a lot not only about the school and her classmates, but also about the new world that she has entered. There is a class system of sorts, where people with simpler talents have simpler lives, and since Foxfire is a school for the very talented, the students are considered to be more noble, and wear capes to distinguish them. Sophie continues to hang out with Fitz, whom she rather likes, although his sister Brina is rather bratty and takes some time to warm up to this interloper. Sophie also makes friends with Dex (whom Fitz doesn't like) and Marella. There are all sorts of activities at Foxfire, although Sophie struggles with the headmistress, Dame Alina, who takes an instant dislike to her. There's games of Ultimate Splotching, problems in alchemy class, the pet Iggy the Imp, and plenty of student drama to enliven this first installment of this graphic novel adaptation of Messenger's long novel series. 

Messenger's first Keep of the Lost Cities book came out in 2012, when Harry Potter fever was still running high and magical academy books were popular after the final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book in 2007. There's been a resurgence in the genre in the 2020's with Alston's  Amari and the Night Brothers (2021), Sanders's Keynan Masters and the Peerless Magic Crew  (2023) and Hendrix's Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, and there have been more diverse representation ever since the We Need Diverse Books movement in 2014. There are currently nine books in Messenger's series, with a tenth, and possibly final book, expected in November of 2024. These books are all very high fantasy, filled with action and adventure, and each comes in at well over 400 pages. They have a small but very fervent fan base!

Since the books are so long, this graphic novel is just part one of the first book, which means that if all of the books were adapted, there would be twenty! The graphic novel might be a good way to introduce readers to this series, or to give fans an opportunity to revisit the characters and see a visual representation that might differ from their own. 

This version seems to stay true to the original, but the world building isn't as intense; the pictures add a lot of details, but there were some things that were a little unclear. Why were some of the characters so mean to Sophie? What's the deal between Dex and Fitz? Is there a secret about Sophie's foster parents? And why does Sophie keep tugging at her eyelashes? (Complete with a small written "tug" next to her face.) It's been a while since I read the original, so I forget some of the finer points of these relationships and events. 

This is a nicely done book that will be popular with graphic novel fans who don't have as many choices as do the fans of artist's memoirs (think Telgemaier, Krosoczka's Sunshine, Harper's Bad Sister, Martin's Mexikid, Bermudez's Big Apple Diaries and so many others), and might lead new readers into the complex world of the Lost Cities. 

I didn't buy the original series, since by 2012 I had very few fantasy readers and LOTS of fantasy books, and this didn't cover any particularly new ground. There are maybe two students a year who ask for the books, but even they tend to buy them or get them from the public library. I don't regret my original decision not to purchase! Interestingly, only two of the five middle schools in my district have any copies of these. I've always felt a little bad about not buying this, since Messenger started the Marvelous Middle Grade Monday blog meetup, but I have never had the readers for this. I'm sure other schools do. 

Paramore, Austin and Bollinger, Sarah. Malcolm Kid and the Perfect Song

August 1, 2023 by Oni Press

Public library copy

Malcolm is too poor even to be robbed on the subway; a local thug even gives Malcolm a squashed granola bar when he finds out Malcolm has no money. He DOES have two parents and a younger brother to whom he is close, but his father is very much against his musical aspirations, for reasons he won't really explain. When Malcolm's keyboard is broken, his friend January takes him to a mysterious shop where a man with mesmerizing eyes convinces him to take a free keyboard. Of course, it's haunted, and Malcolm finds himself falling into a dream where he meets a man named Lawrence who needs help playing "the perfect song" so he can move along. After doing some research, Malcolm and January find out the man's true identity and try to help him to escape the purgatory he is in. 

This was an interesting graphic novel, and would be great for middle school and high school readers who are really interested in music. I liked the illustration style, but I almost wish this had been in black and white. It's colored in shades of brown that are just kind of murky. I may purchase this one; the light romance between Malcolm and January is charming, and I liked that they were both in high school. It looks like there might be a sequel.