Dodging Danger on the Dartmouth

January 1, 2011
Joey and his friends take ghostly trips back in time to experience maritime New England history in these formulaic graphic novels. The cartoon-panel illustrations, sometimes appropriately spooky, omit necessary visual details and leave confusing action gaps. Time travel adds some interest to the bland history lessons, which suffer without context or vivacity. Glos.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2011

Gr 4-6-This series aims to add some spookiness to real-world places and events, but suffers from a lack of suspense and compelling characters. Joey DeAngelo, native New Yorker and Yankee die-hard, arrives in Boston to the reception one would expect from Sox fans-chilly. Classmates Tank and Gil are especially unfriendly until some spooky events bring them together. They fight ghosts on the Dartmouth, the ship made famous as the location of the Boston Tea Party, the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, and the Bird Island Lighthouse. Character development is sacrificed for plot movement. Dialogue is often inauthentic and stiff. While pacing is quick, the suspense generated is mild. Each story comes to an abrupt conclusion that may ring hollow for readers. The comic-inspired illustrations are bold, with thick black outlines. The layout makes for easy reading, but it is occasionally difficult to decipher the action depicted in panels. Back matter provides context with a short description of the real-life location featured in the book, and a note to visit the publisher's website for related information (a search yielded no results). While these titles might generate interest because of their format, flat characters and poor plot development won't inspire long-term interest.-Travis Jonker, Dorr Elementary School, MI

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2010
Grades 3-5 While on a field trip to visit the Dartmouth, Joey forms an unexpected alliance with the school bully, Tank, when they meet a ghost and end up back in 1773in the middle of the Boston Tea Party! Joey is ostracized for his sports allegiancea realistic touch that will speak to kidsand the ghost story is a fun way to incorporate historical learning into this graphic novel. However, historical fiction, a ghost story, time travel, and school problems are a lot of elements to shove into 32 pages, so parts of the plot end up unnecessarily rushed, leading to a choppy reading experience in which the explanations for both the ghost and the time travel are rather thin. Evans thick-lined, warmly colored art will catch the eye of child readers, and the characters have interestingly snarky faces that keep them from seeming too young. A glossary and historical note help make this opener to the Ghostly Graphic Adventures series useful in the classroom in addition to being enjoyable, if quick, leisure reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)