Mighty Jack

While visiting a flea market with his single mother and younger sister, Maddy (who does not speak), Jack foolishly trades the family car for a packet of seeds. He's thrilled when Maddy begins to thrive as she cares for the garden, but these seeds yield a strange and sinister menagerie of sentient plant creatures. Jack eventually destroys the threatening garden, but not before a friendly neighbor girl, Lilly, steals some of the seeds, unwittingly placing Maddy in terrible danger. She is, in fact, kidnapped by the plant creatures and taken into another dimension, and it's up to Jack and Lilly to get her back. Graphic novelist Hatke (Little Robot, rev. 9/15) employs a vibrant color palette dominated, unsurprisingly, by verdant greens and with a panel layout that segues seamlessly between dialogue and action -- all to terrific effect. What initially seems to be a retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk" morphs into something that more closely resembles Little Shop of Horrors, and it remains to be seen whether the giant, the golden egg-laying goose, and other fairy-tale elements will make an appearance. Hatke is such an engaging storyteller that fans will eagerly wait to find out. jonathan huntSeptember/October 2016 p 108

[=Color by 2]Jack foolishly trades the family car for a packet of seeds. He's thrilled when his younger sister (who doesn't speak) cares for the garden, but these seeds yield a sinister menagerie of sentient plant creatures. Graphic novelist Hatke employs a vibrant color palette dominated by verdant greens and with a panel layout that segues seamlessly between dialogue and action--all to terrific effect.