Book Review – How to Curse in Heiroglyphics
The National Reading Campaign is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to making Canada a reading nation, and reading a national conversation. This includes introducing critical reviews of recently published Canandian books for kids. We will be highlighting some of these reviews in this blog. Our first review is for the book How to Curse in Hieroglyphics written by Lesley Livingston and Jonathan Llyr with Storyboard illustrations by Steven Burley, reviewed by Charis Cotter.
How to Curse in Hieroglyphics is a playful collaboration between Jonathan Llyr, the charismatic Space Channel host and writer, and Lesley Livingston, the author of three popular YA fantasy series (Wondrous Strange, Starling and Once Every Never). This book is pure fun from beginning to end.
Twelve-year-old cousins, Tweed (the Goth) and Cheryl (the redhead), see themselves as action heroes in the ongoing B-movie of their lives. Having lost their paren'ts years ago in a mysterious plane disappearance, they are now addicted to the horror movies they watch every night at their grandfather’s drive-in. When a creepy carnival comes to town with a Genuine Egyptian Mummy Princess, Tweed and Cheryl tumble into a real live horror adventure. With the help of two friends, Pilot and Artie, the girls take on the supernatural with grace and gusto.
This snappy, sassy duo never let reality impinge on a good time, and one of their favourite pastimes is their game of ACTION. The text morphs into movie mode, with Steven Burley’s storyboards illustrating their flights of fancy, transforming trees into helicopters and hockey gear into body armour. These movie sequences cleverly build on the twelve-year-old’s endless capacity for complicated in-colour daydreaming.
Fast-paced and funny, with two fearless and resourceful heroines and an endless stock of horror and action-movie references, the book is sure to be a hit. Happily, there are more to come, since this is the first book in the Wiggins Weird series. And, as for how to curse in hieroglyphics—do it slowly, with pictures: “Squiggly line, bird, eyeball, sideways walking guy!”
Charis Cotter is a freelance writer who lives in Newfoundland. Her children’s novel, The Swallow: A Ghost Story, will be published by Tundra Books in 2014.
Reposted with permission.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Comments