Broken

Gr 7 Up—After a tragic motorcycle crash, 18-year-old Jem is killed and his 15-year-old sister, Zara, is left in a coma. While comatose, artist Zara is aware of what her devastated parents and others are saying. In her suspended state, she is able to enter the world of Jem's favorite comic book to search for him. Once there, she realizes that she can control what happens by using a pencil and eraser to change locations and escape trouble, but still she cannot find Jem. As she searches for him, her memories flash back to when she was kidnapped at age seven by a deranged man. She was not physically harmed. Eventually she managed to break free and made subsequent visits to a psychologist. Nonetheless, the experience haunts Zara's present. Despite an attempt to keep all the plotlines straight by using different fonts and inserting several comic-book panels throughout, the story is more confusing than satisfying. Frequent choppiness in the writing plus limited character and plot development do not help. Students looking for a more effective blend of comics and prose should try Cecil Castellucci's The Year of the Beasts (Roaring Brook, 2012) and Swati Avasthi's Chasing Shadows (Knopf, 2013) instead.—Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, CO