CBR15Passport another country (set in England, both author & illustrator live in UK)
The Queen’s Favorite Witch V02 The Lost King has the old distinction of being maybe not as good as the first, but also just as good as the first. I mean, I enjoyed volume one (even though it was a familiar story, it felt fresh and new) and built the second volume up so much (hard not to, even subconsciously) it was of course going to happen. But this time, we have the “set up” story over and now we can get into some of the nitty gritty of this fun series and that gives things a leg up on the “good times” of reading.
If you like history with a twist, this is the graphics novel series for you. Benjamin Dickson and Rachael Smith allow us to follow a young witch (Daisy) through the court of Queen Elizabeth as she battles the difficulty of learning spells, overcoming her self-doubt, cleaning in her cauldron, talking to rats and sweet, but not too bright spiders, dealing with plots against the queen, a new friend with a queasy stomach (flying is really not his thing), and water demons (who might be evil, but are kind of cute).
The artwork is, in many ways, my favorite part of het story. I like the colors (bold and solid), the busyness of things, and yet, you can figure out the story without the art overwhelming and crowding the story. They complement the text and in many ways are their own character. They have character, too. Okay, I could have done without the lovey green vomit coming out of the character, but it did work to move a lull in the story along. And the characteristics of people come out. You see clues that you need to realize (the water on the face of the King of Spain) and the eye patch on the villain (thanks, now I know he’s a bad guy, because you know, eye patch!)
But seriously, with all the humor involved, this really is a good story of a fictionalized piece of history. We learn about women’s roles of the time, how history was unfolding, and the way people feel about being different. The afterwards helps show you fact in relation to the fiction.
