Monday, May 11, 2009

Amulet

Many months back, I bought a few books by the artist Kazu Kibuishi. I enjoyed them all and here is a review on one of these comics.


Amulet is a comic book written for kids. It is a story similar to Spiderwick Chronicles at least on the outside. Navin and Emily lose their father due to a car accident. The kids move with their mother to an old house, in the middle of nowhere, belonging to the kids grandparents. It is a eerie house - the images in the book remind me again of the movie Spiderwick Chronicles(one of the better movies in my opinion of 2008). The house was earlier inhabited by their Grandpa Silas, an eccentric person who made puzzles that looked more like machines.


Early in the book, there is a conversation between Emily and her mother, which probably is the main underlying theme of the book. Emily does not understand why she has to go to a new school and cannot learn her own like her Grandpa Silas. The mother replies back - "Grandpa was an eccentric. Just trust me Emily. It is better to lead a normal life like everyone else".


There is definitely something weird going on in the house. Although, the kids can feel something odd, they are not able to pin down that feeling. There is always something slithering away in the corner - disappearing before one looks that way. Emily and Navin discover an amulet in the house and Emily decides to wear it. Later that night, they hear a weird noise and mother goes to investigate the noise in the basement. She is soon abducted by a multi-tentacled monster. This is when the thrilling chase starts. Emily and Navin try to save their mother and face a series of adventures - where they are assisted by some quirky robots. The amulet has great powers and she needs to learn how to use it. One can almost hear Spider man saying in the background - "With great power comes greater responsibility".


Amulet is the first part of the book and I am itching to get my hands on the next one whenever it is released. I read about this book on internet and brought it from Amazon UK. A few weeks after I bought the book, we visited Landmark and found that they were selling this nice book for Rs.250/-. Oh well! I could have saved a few pounds. Nevertheless, I am glad I bought this book.


A great book to share and read with your kids. My son, Sooraj enjoyed it, but not very much. He never showed the same amount of excitement as much as I did!


The other books that I bought by this author include Flight Volume 3 and Flight Explorer Volume 1. I will blog about these other wonderful books later.

4 comments:

Sheela said...

Gosh, Satish! A fellow comic-book enthusiast, at last! I used to devour them as a kid - anyone remember 'Irumbukkai Mayavi'? or 'Phantom, the ghost who walks'? and still am partial to well written and well-illustrated ones... will have to check this out... For a while, some of the typical Japanese-style graphic novels seemed too over-the-top for me... but, Ana loves Astro Boy!

sathish said...

Hi sheela, I do not remember irumbukkai mayavi; but, phantom is a great favourite. I used to love mandrake more than all the (super/spider/..man's)

As for as Manga goes - one either likes it or hates it. I fell in love with it due to osama tezuka's Buddha series. I do not get many manga in libraries here. They are available in book shops; but are costly. so, my consumption is relatively less of them.

I am currently devouring Jeff Smith's Bone series.

Sheela said...

of course, mandrake the magician, gosh, this brings back memories...

Sheela said...

Finally, through the eyes of the newly-minted seven year old, Amulet: The Stonekeeper is coming to life for me!

"Look, Mama, Miskit brought Vitamins. He says he brought the wrong kind of darts! Miskit is a robot but he is plushy!"

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