The War at Ellsmere, by Faith Erin Hicks
Publisher: SLG Publishing
Genre: Graphic novel, YA
Pages: 156
We don't have a whole lot of graphic novels or manga at my library (nor am I supposed to buy many for my teen collection, but what they don't know won't hurt them, right?) so I try to buy a few each month. It's hard to keep up with manga, especially when it is so frowned upon here, but there are a number of great graphic novels being published right under my nose that I learn about from VOYA or the occassional Booklist section on GNs. This is one of them.
Juniper is a scholarship student at the posh, academically rigorous boarding school, Ellsmere Academy. She already knows she isn't going to fit in when she sees her incredibly fancy dorm room and thinks, "Apparently I'm going to school in a Disneyland postcard." She has a smart mouth and a whole lotta attitude, which helps her when she incurs the wrath of Emily, a rich, snobbish but equally snide and witty student. Of course, her smart mouth is also what gets her into trouble with Emily in the first place. Luckily, she makes friends with her roommate Cassie, who is sweet-natured and a little kooky; she often mentions things like alien abductions, and she's the one who tells Jun all the crazy stories about the school's mysterious history and the creature said to roam the nearby woods punishing evil. (This story turns out to be somewhat true.)
This graphic novels melds a lot of great elements: there's the "misfit at boarding school" story, the developing friendship between Cassie and Jun, the rivalry between Emily and Jun, and the weird hints of magic on the school grounds. The dialog is snappy and realistic and the characters are real -- even Emily, who could develop "stock-evil-rich-girl" syndrome but somehow doesn't. (Maybe because she's so cunning in her evil plans.) Juniper makes for a great heroine -- she's smart, determined, and sarcastic, always a great combo. Finally, the black and white art is fantastic. It's quirky and offbeat, like the characters and the story, but not so much that it gets really cartoony. It's perfectly pitched to middle schoolers or junior high kids. Even though I ordered this, the catalogers mistakenly put it in the juv section (I guess that's where it is in some other libraries), and after thinking about it, we decided to leave it there. (Well, okay, I wanted to take it back but the children's librarians were so happy and they said they had a great audience for it, and I guess they do more middle school then I do.) The ending looks to promise a sequel so I'm looking forward to making the children's librarians order it, too! (c: