ACHUKA Book of the Day 22 Jun 2022
“Walsh’s breathtaking action sequences call to mind the crime comics of the great American duo Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, while his characters’ facial expressions and expressive body language will remind you of Hergé’s “The Adventures of Tintin.” The inking of the panels, with its dramatic play of light and shadows, is squarely within the tradition, but a singular creative decision sets Walsh above his influences: his use of color. Instead of adhering to naturalistic coloring, Walsh shifts his color palette within sequences according to the emotional state of his characters. The tension between realistic inking and symbolic coloring is not unlike the tension between text and subtext in well-written dialogue.”
New York Times
“As I paged through a book so thoroughly enmeshed in history and science fiction by turns, I marveled that something this accomplished is just so casually available to kids these days. When I was young you had your Carl Barks at the 7-11, if you were lucky, and the newspaper comic collections at the library. Now we get gripping, thoughtful, historical/science fiction hybrids for kids that have a lot to say to young readers today.” Fuse8
A page-turning sci-fi adventure set in 1953, featuring a clever girl who, against all odds, must outsmart bullies, the FBI, and alien invaders during the height of the communist Red Scare.
sample page
Peggy is scared: She’s struggling to recover from polio and needs crutches to walk, and she and her neighbors are worried about the rumors of Communist spies doing bad things. On top of all that, Peggy has a hard time at school, and gets taunted by her classmates. When she finds a mysterious artifact that gives her the ability to fly, she thinks it’s the solution to all her problems. But if Peggy wants to keep it, she’ll have to overcome bullies, outsmart FBI agents, and escape from some very strange spies!
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