The Road to Inconceivable (Abadazad, Book 1)

Kate's little brother Matt is missing, and Kate thinks she will never see him again.  But then she finds out that Matt is trapped in the world of Abadazad. Will Kate have the courage to look for her brother?  And if she leaves home--will she ever return?

Gr. 4-7. A victim of CrossGen Comic's bankruptcy, the Abadazad series gets a new format here--diary entries interspersed with spot and full-page pictures and short episodes of sequential art. It's been five years since 14-year-old Kate's beloved brother, Matt, disappeared, and still raw from the tragedy, Kate and her mother are constantly at each other's throats. Then a neighbor tells Kate that Matt is in Abadazad, the mystical land featured in a series of books that Matt loved. Kate follows Matt into Abadazad, and as the first volume in the series ends, she is poised for adventure. The black-and-white art is an appealing mix of realism and exaggeration, but it is occasionally awkwardly inserted into the text, and the sequences do little to enliven the fantasy. It's Kate who makes the story shine: hyperdefensive and plagued by guilt, she is powerfully and believably depicted. A thoughtful read with surprising psychological nuance, this is not typical fantasy fare. Jesse Karp
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