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Summary
Summary
Calling all Raina Telgemeier fans! The Newbery Honor-winning author of Roller Girl is back with a heartwarming graphic novel about starting middle school, surviving your embarrassing family, and the Renaissance Faire.
Eleven-year-old Imogene (Impy) has grown up with two parents working at the Renaissance Faire, and she's eager to begin her own training as a squire. First, though, she'll need to prove her bravery. Luckily Impy has just the quest in mind-she'll go to public school after a life of being homeschooled! But it's not easy to act like a noble knight-in-training in middle school. Impy falls in with a group of girls who seem really nice (until they don't) and starts to be embarrassed of her thrift shop apparel, her family's unusual lifestyle, and their small, messy apartment. Impy has always thought of herself as a heroic knight, but when she does something really mean in order to fit in, she begins to wonder whether she might be more of a dragon after all.
As she did in Roller Girl , Victoria Jamieson perfectly-and authentically-captures the bittersweetness of middle school life with humor, warmth, and understanding.
Author Notes
Victoria Jamieson is the creator of the Newbery Honor winner Roller Girl . She received her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as a children's book designer before moving to Portland, Oregon and becoming a freelance illustrator. She has also worked as a portrait artist aboard a cruise ship, and has lived in Australia, Italy, and Canada. She maintains a not-so-secret identity as Winnie the Pow, skater with the Rose City Rollers roller derby league and has a not-so-secret past as a Renaissance Faire groupie.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Jamieson doesn't disappoint in her first graphic novel since her Newbery Honor-winning Roller Girl. Imogen Vega's parents perform at a Renaissance fair in Florida, immersing the family in a world of jousting and archaic language ("Thou qualling toad-spotted clack-dish!"). Imogen has been homeschooled all her life; now, at 11, she's headed to public school. In her first weeks, she falls victim to the wiles of a mean girl, hurts a girl who might have been a good friend, and throws her younger brother's treasured stuffed animal into the lake. As Imogen undergoes a period of self-enforced solitude, the extended family of the fair community offers unexpected support. Jamieson's sturdy artwork (her figures are decidedly unglamorous, as if to offer regular kids reassurance) and sharp dialogue make it easy to care about her characters. Readers will also appreciate the irreverent humor of the fair's adults: as a treatment for bullies, one recommends "a large quantity of chicken feathers and a few pots of honey." The fair emphasizes adventure and theater, but its unconventional performers teach Imogen about kindness, too. Ages 9-12. Agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Roller Girl (rev. 3/15) meets the Ren Faire in Jamiesons new read-alike graphic novel. After years of homeschooling, Imogene Vega, a squire-in-training at the Florida Renaissance Faire where her family works seasonally, starts middle school. Embarrassingly hilarious and tragic moments ensue, involving name-brand clothing and knockoffs, sexy romance novels, frenemies, maybe-crushes, retellings of Saint George and the Dragon, and a stuffed squirrel. Between classmates, teachers, parents, and Imogenes vibrant extended faire-mily, nobody seems to get how hard it is to be a sixth-grader in transition (until they do). Imogene is reflected with depth as she manages her anxiety and grows to better understand her familys precarious finances as well as microaggressions endured by her Latino father at the Faire and at his retail job. Roller-coaster moments stem from relatable, everyday adolescent experiences, always with a sense of high stakes. There is just enough commitment to the Renaissance theme to bring it to life without alienating those unfamiliar with Elizabethan English or other rennie references. The illustrations, loose, energetic, and expressive, let plot and characterization shine. Each chapter starts with third-person narration, presented within decorative borders featuring shields, dragons, and other illuminations; its as if Imogenes story is a Renaissance tale itself--an experience complete with tension, laughter, anticipation, heartbreak, and delight. elisa gall (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
After years of homeschooling, Imogene is excited to start public school for the first time. Plus, she finally gets to perform in the Renaissance faire, where her mom has a shop (or, shoppe) and her dad plays a knight. Imogene doesn't have much trouble sliding into her new role at the faire, but middle school is another story. Rules about who to sit with, what to wear, and how to fit in are confounding, especially when she's getting some seriously mixed messages from the popular girls in her class and realizing how different her family is. Jamieson's appealing, naturalistic artwork, full of warm tones, realistic-looking characters, and saturated colors, playfully incorporates medieval imagery along with Imogene's more mundane homelife, particularly when Imogene fears that her misbehavior at home, thanks to frustrations at school, makes her more of a dragon than a knight. Jamieson masterfully taps into the voice and concerns of middle-schoolers, and the offbeat setting of the Renaissance faire adds some lively texture. Kids who loved Jamieson's Roller Girl (2015) will adore this one, too.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
NO APPARENT DISTRESS: A Doctor's Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine, by Rachel Pearson. (Norton, $26.95.) In this med-school memoir that is also a probing moral inquiry, Pearson describes her struggles trying to treat patients left out of the American health care system. WILD THINGS: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult, by Bruce Handy. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) The premise of Handy's eccentric essay is that we should take children's literature seriously. The book succeeds wonderfully, not so much as an argument but as an emanation of spirit. LITTLE SOLDIERS: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve, by Lenora Chu. (Harper, $27.99.) Chu vividly sketches the differences between the education structures of China and the United States in terms that will make readers ponder what they think about rote memorization and parents question their preferences for their own children. A BOY IN WINTER, by Rachel Seiffert. (Pantheon, $25.95.) Set over three days in November 1941, Seiffert's novel probes the bonds and betrayals in a Ukrainian town as it succumbs to Hitler's armies. Whether farmers or engineers, German or Ukrainian or Jewish, all must make wrenching choices. THE LOCALS, by Jonathan Dee. (Random House, $28.) Dee's latest novel, set in the years after 9/11 in the fictional Berkshires town of Howland, Mass., offers an engrossing panorama of cops, nurses, carpenters, organic farmers and one relocated hedge fund titan. CHESTER B. HIMES: A Biography, by Lawrence P. Jackson. (Norton, $35.) This comprehensively researched biography offers a bracing journey through the life of the uncompromising Himes, whose hard-boiled detective series mirrored his shrewd cynicism about racial progress in America. Jackson refuses to romanticize Himes's life or his motivation for becoming an artist. ALL'S FAIRE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. (Dial, $12.99; ages 9 to 12.) This second graphic novel from the creator of "Roller Girl" offers a nuanced look at Imogene, a home-schooled girl who's grown up at a Renaissance faire. THE LITTLE RED CAT WHO RAN AWAY AND LEARNED HIS ABC'S (THE HARD WAY). Written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell. (Little, Brown, $17.99; ages 4 to 8.) In this delightful alphabet book by the creator of the comic strip Mutts, readers must use the one letter on each page to figure out the plot. PATINA, by Jason Reynolds. (Atheneum, $16.99; ages 10 and up.) This second book in Reynolds's Track series focuses on Patina Jones, the fastest girl on the track team, who has to master passing the baton while navigating a rough road at home. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-7-Imogene Vega has been homeschooled, spending eight weeks every year helping out at the Florida Renaissance Faire, where both of her parents work. Until now she was behind the scenes helping in her mother's shop, but this year she will serve as squire to her father's alter ego, the villainous knight Sir Hugo. At the same time she will be starting another, far scarier quest: navigating the treacherous landscape of middle school. Laura Knight Keating marvelously captures Imogene's voice, giving it just the right pitch and inflection to reflect her myriad emotions as she deals with friends, teachers, family, and the faire. The entire cast does their best to bring the faire and the middle school experience to life; however, as the original book was a graphic novel, listeners may often feel they are missing pieces of the story that need to be seen. VERDICT Young listeners will thoroughly enjoy the multiple voices and the descriptive text on audio, but to get the full experience they will want to have a copy of the book nearby.-Shari Fesko, Southfield Public Library, MI © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A home-schooled squireling sallies forth to public school, where the woods turn out to be treacherous and dragons lie in wait.Imogene Vega has grown up among "faire-mily"; her brown-skinned dad is the resident evil knight at a seasonal Renaissance faire, her lighter-skinned mom is in charge of a gift shop, and other adult friends play various costumed roles. As a freshly minted "squire," she happily charges into new weekend duties helping at jousts, practicing Elizabethan invective ("Thou lumpish reeling-ripe jolt-head!" "Thou loggerheaded rump-fed giglet!"), and keeping younger visitors entertained. But she loses her way when cast among crowds of strangers in sixth grade. Along with getting off on the wrong foot academically, she not only becomes a target of mockery after clumsy efforts to join a clique go humiliatingly awry, but alienates potential friends (and, later, loving parents and adoring little brother too). Amid stabs of regret she wonders whether she's more dragon than knight. In her neatly drawn sequential panels, Newbery honoree Jamieson (Roller Girl, 2015) portrays a diverse cast of expressive, naturally posed figures occupying two equally immersive worlds. In the end Imogene wins the day in both, proving the mettle of her brave, decent heart in finding ways to make better choices and chivalric amends for her misdeeds. Readers will cheer her victories, wince at her stumbles, and likely demand visits to the nearest faire themselves to sample the wares and fun. (Graphic fiction. 10-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.