On The Run In Ancient China

I bought this in, well, modern China, at the Foreign Languages Bookstore in Shanghai in June of 2022.

Title: On the Run in Ancient China
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Date: 2003
Writer: Linda Bailey
Artist: Bill Slavin
Editor: Valerie Wyatt

Short educational graphic novel for kids, part of the Time Travel Guides series. The general format has the fictional comic story at the top of each page, while the bottom half has a writeup of the relevant historical and cultural facts.

In terms of plot, this resembles Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series. Three kids, Emma, Josh, and Libby, enter a magical (time-) travel agency and are transported back in time to Han-dynasty China. Mayhem ensues when the youngest is found by a traveling nobleman and taken to the Emperor's court. Meanwhile, the two older siblings accidentally stumble on the secret of silk-making and quickly become wanted fugitives.

The story whisks the kids through an array of scenes, showing life and culture during the time period, while the kids get into more and more trouble as they go.

The illustrations looked good, but the story was mostly about the older two siblings trying to reunite with Libby and escape, and the frantic pace of it loses some of the sense of wonder. The story comes to its expected reset, without much more than superficial character development, and some of the historical prose felt a bit dry. Libby, who actually enjoys most of her adventures, is the highlight of the story, but her plotline gets excessively silly at times.

Rating: 5.5/10

Heartstopper Volume 1

Bought at my school's book fair in Winter of 2024.

Title: Heartstopper
Issue: Volume 1
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2020
Writer: Alice Oseman
Artist: Alice Oseman

Romance, or rather, the beginnings of romance, between two boys at a British high school. This is one of the most wholesome love stories I've read, not that there aren't complications and things that go wrong, but just that the author does such a great job of getting the reader cheering for the couple to come together.

And while the supporting cast is small, the author manages to give us an amazing character in rugby coach Mrs. Singh, who shines in spite of only getting a couple of quick scenes.

The pacing is great, allowing for small moments and dialogue while still moving things along. The cliffhanger ending does feel like a bit of an arbitrary place to cut things, but it did it's job of leaving me wanting to read more.

9/10

Unearthly Volume 1

From the books I unpacked out of storage.

Title: Unearthly
Issue: Volume 1
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Date: September, 2005
Writer: Ted Naifeh
Artist: Elmer Damaso, Paolo Aguasin
Letterer: Nicky Lim
Editor: Jason DeAngelis, Adam Arnold

This is set up as a high school love triangle romance, and very quickly turns into something else entirely. Bookish student Ann has a crush on Jem, a sensitive boy who also has the attention of volleyball captain Rae.

Enter Star, an alien shapeshifter on the run. A fair amount of mayhem ensues before we get a final shift into space opera mode.

I liked that the characters are deeper and more complex than they first appear, especially Rae, the popular girl/jock. She's loads of fun with a surprising emotional range and a more real vibe than I expected when she was introduced. She's the real highlight of this initial volume, but I enjoyed the interactions between Ann and Jem as well.

The second volume looks to have a very different flavor, and I'm interested to see where the story goes.

Rating: 7/10