Abadazad: The Dream Thief - Book #2 (Abadazad, 2) - Hardcover

Eisner Award winnerJ.M. DeMatteiswas a professional musician and rock music journalist before entering the comic book field, where he worked on such flagship Marvel and DC characters as Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Silver Surfer, and the Justice League. DeMatteis'sBrooklyn Dreams, a graphic novel for adults, was praised as "a classic of the form" byBooklistin a starred review. DeMatteis, who also writes for television and film, lives with his family in upstate New York.
Mike Plooghas created art for a wide variety of comics, books, and movies. He apprenticed under Will Eisner atP*S Magazine; he was part of the team that created the first Scooby-Doo cartoon at Hannah Barbera; he drew pictures for Marvel'sWerewolf by Night, Conan,andPlanet of the Apes; and he has spent a long career as an artist for movies such asShrek, X-Men,andValiant.Born in Minnesota and a one-time resident of Burbank, California, Ploog lives and works in Devon, England.

Grade 4-7–Abadazad is a magical graphic novel that Kate, 14, and her younger brother, Matt, had been reading about in old books. While under Kate's care five years earlier, he was kidnapped, and she is still having trouble dealing with the loss. Through some sort of magic, she is transported to the land of Abadazad, where her brother is, and she meets the characters from the books as she starts her quest to rescue him. Here the first book ends, and not much is resolved or explained. The format is a challenge because pages from the original stories are interspersed with Kate's diary, which then jumps into graphic-novel format that looks anime-ish. The text lacks pagination or chapter breaks and has a tiny font. The language of Kate's diary is colloquial, with asides in parentheses, and the pages of the old books begin and end in the middle of sentences. Dream Thief follows the same format; the pieces don't work any better together, and the plot is not clear. Although Kate has several adventures and meets creepy and creative characters, she does not find her brother, except as a vision in a pearl necklace, held captive in a pod of green goo. While graphic-novel fans might pick these books up, there is too much narrative text between the cartoons to hold their interest, and all but the most stalwart readers might decide that the format is just too confusing.–Sharon R. Pearce, Longfellow Elementary School, Oak Park, IL
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