Graphic Novel Review – Audrey’s Magic Nine by Michelle Wright, Courtney Huddleston, Tracy Bailey (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy/Contemporary Fiction
Length: 144 pages
Publisher: Penny-Farthing Productions
Release Date: January 12, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-0984214358
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Audrey’s Magic Nine series
Source: Copy from Publisher for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars
“The only thing more enchanting than twelve-year old Audrey’s precocious artistic talent is moxie so formidable that not even a broken foster care system, ambitious adoptive parents, or terrifying show people can defeat it. Armed with her trusty sketchbook and a magical, fuzzy friend, this plucky heroine sets out on a quest to find all the members of a legendary council devoted to erasing the evil between earth and a mysterious realm. Featuring over 140, full-color pages and bonus short stories, Audrey’s Magic Nine is a fanciful, all-ages treatise on the power of the imagination.”
I got a copy of this graphic novel to review from the publisher. This is a cute graphic novel that is high quality and has a fun story. My 10 year old son read this and also enjoyed it. He said he liked that it was different from other middle grade graphic novels he had read and loved the magical puppets.
The story follows a girl named Audrey who is in foster care. When a young couple decides to adopt her, things get a bit crazy for Audrey. Audrey is an incredibly talented artist, but her new parents are determined to give her all the advantages that they didn’t have as kids. So Audrey finds herself over committed to many activities and constantly racing from one thing to another. She finds joy in her art and, when one of her fuzzy puppets come to life, she finds herself on a quest to find the other members of the council this puppet belongs to.
My son and I both enjoyed this. The story takes awhile to get going. The beginning of the graphic novel is dedicated to giving the reader some background on Audrey and the couple that end up adopting her. Once Audrey gets her magical friend, the story starts to pick up and gets much more interesting. This is just the beginning of the story.
Even though Audrey is twelve years old, at times she seems younger than that. My son did mention to me that this seems like a graphic novel aimed at younger kids and I agree. The magical puppet theme was a bit young for my son.
The illustration was well done and I enjoyed the bright colors throughout. The illustration was also easy to follow. There are some bonus stories that give background on the other puppets that Audrey finds. These were cute.
Overall this was a cute graphic novel about a girl finding her forever home and dealing with being over-committed to activities by eager parents. There is some magic and adventure in here, but more would have been better. My son and I both agree that we will continue with the series and we both hope that future books have more excitement and magic in them than this novel did.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
