Swoon Now! Amulet & Missile Mouse

Regular visitors to the shop may have noticed the steadily expanding All Ages section encompassing picture books for the young to new Disney graphic novels and more sophisticated reads such as Bone, Mouse Guard and Robot City.

Many of these books are all ages books in the sense that they're not just for kids, but that someone of any age can enjoy them. This is a testament to the quality of effort put into these books in recent times. Jeff Smith demonstrated with Bone that a book appropriate for kids need not be 'childish' but can and should display emotional depth and drama.

So anyway, a couple of recent recommendations for titles that you may not have spotted or be aware of: Amulet (Scholastic) by Kazu Kibuishi comes with a quote from Jeff Smith himself on the reverse. After the death of her father in an accident, Emily, her brother and mother move to a very old, very large ancestral home that has a mysterious past (of course). It's not long before all three are catapulted into an alien world and a perilous mystery that involves the glowing amulet she found... It's a pacy, intense book with some lovely imagination from Kibuishi and it's already in it's third volume of the saga. I recommend looking at the lovely section on the Scholastic website devoted to exploring the characters of Amulet.

Missile Mouse (Scholastic) is little less emotionally charged, instead aiming for packing in the action. He's more Han Solo than Luke Skywalker; with a blaster at his side and a reputation across the galaxy. The art is simple, clear and bright and the stories (there have been two volumes thus far) are self-contained. There's a nice interview with the creator, Jake Parker about the origins of the character on ComicBookResources.and a look at the creative process on his blog.