Amulet, Volumes 1 - 8 (Kibuishi)
A couple of months ago, there was a Scholastic book fair at the school that I'm currently assigned to. While I wasn't officially "working" the book fair, it took place in the room I usually spent my free time in, so I did lend a hand, mostly straightening up piles. There were a number of graphic novels on one of the tables, and one of these (particularly one of the ones that had Volume One on the table) was Amulet. The cover looked interesting and a quick flip of the pages showed some great color artwork. I took a picture of the first book and made a note to look into it.
Fast forward a couple weeks, and I find myself regularly in an English classroom where there is a pile of these books. Basically, almost a class set of book 1 and two copies of the rest. I spent the next couple weeks reading them, 50 minutes at a time. It wasn't until I was on book 5 that I realized that there were more than six books in the pile. (I thought only six were shown on the inside back cover.) There were seven. Nope, wait, there were eight. (Someone must've borrowed it.)
As you can tell, I enjoyed it enough to keep reading. And I enjoyed it enough to be annoyed to find that there is a NINTH book, which the teacher didn't have. So I checked the library website, and they didn't have it either. And then I did a little research and discovered something:
Volume 9 hasn't been published yet!!
I haven't had this feeling a series of books in a long time. And it's worse because most of the story has (or seems to have) wrapped up in Volume 8, and we are promised that it will "conclude" in Volume 9. When I saw that the first book was published in 2010, I didn't think it was still being created, unless it was an open-ended story. Who knew? Other than fans who have been reading it from the beginning, and waiting one or two years between each edition. And considering that volume 8 was only released this past September, I probably have a while to wait for it.
Okay, so the brief notes for me to review when book 9 comes out:
It starts with a family and there's a car accident, but the father doesn't make it out and falls into the darkness with the car. A grim start, but one that gets reference much later on, so it isn't gratuitous. (Seriously, some books, particularly ones written for kids, could start after these events and refer to them in flashbacks.) Mom takes the two kids, Emily and Navin, to an old house in the woods that belonged to her grandfather, Silas Charnon. And this is where the weird stuff begins.
Emily and Navin find an amulet in Silas's old library. That night, the mother gets kidnapped by giant spider-like things and brought to another realm. The kids follow. They're eventually rescued by the rabbit creature from the cover of the first book, which turns out to be a robot that Silas built. Silas, who is still alive, but barely, is a "stonekeeper". Before he dies, he passes the stone on to Emily, along with all its power, responsibilities and its curse. (There's a voice within the stone that talks to Emily and tries to gain control.)
Mom is rescued within a couple of books, but there's a bigger story involving the Elves, who are the "bad guys" of this series, being at war with the "humans" for many years. I put humans in quotes, because many of them have begun to look more animal-like because of an affliction. And then there's Trellis, the son of the Elf King, who knows there's something wrong and wants Emily to join him to help overthrow his father. (The Elf King has no problem seeing Trellis dead if he cannot perform certain actions.)
Lots going on, both in the past and the present, in one world and in the void.
Great artwork, particularly on the splash pages. I can see why it takes so long to finish each book. And I want to finish the next one already.
I'm counting this as eight books for any "goals" I decide on, because I can.
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