Graylight

Gr 10 Up—A combination of few words and washed colors creates a surreal tale of overprotection and hermitlike behavior. When Edmund is a baby, his mother promises to protect him from any woman who might hurt him the way she hurt his father. Years pass and she and Edmund continue to live reclusively and catch the interest of a newspaper reporter, Erik, who visits with a girl named Sasha posing as a photographer. While there, Sasha steals a book. In order to get it back, Edmund searches for her. The confusion begins when there seems to be a semiconscious relationship with her going on in his head. His mother picks up on this and keeps her promise by summoning her spirits to keep her son safe while endangering Sasha's life. While the artwork adds to the mysteriousness of the story and characters, the lack of explanation will leave readers wanting more. The artwork is eye-catching, but the muddled story line makes this graphic novel an additional selection.—Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI