Daisy Kutter: The Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi

On page one of The Last Train, readers meet Daisy Kutter, owner of a general store, a severe scowl, and too much time on her hands. In her boredom she pulls a suction cup dart gun from the shelf. Then another. Daisy is also the owner of serious gun handling skills. She plasters everything in the store with rubber darts.

“Old habits die hard, don’t they?” asks Tom, the sheriff, as he arrives and witnesses the one-sided shootout.

Tom asks Daisy to help him co-marshal a poker game at a local watering hole that evening. Marshal? “You’ve got to be kidding, Tom. You’re still trying to turn me over to the dark side. To settle down like you. When you know I’d still rather play.” The look on Tom’s face shows his resignation to Daisy’s true character.

“Old habits die hard, don’t they?” Daisy throws Tom's question back at him.

Daisy makes the acquaintance of some colorful characters at the poker game who later make her an offer she can’t refuse. Rob one more train. Demonstrate that the latest security robots (Robots? More on that later.) are no match for an experienced train robber like Daisy. The reward? The return of all her poker losses – a significant sum – plus $350,000.

At first glance the story appears to be set in a traditional western town. But as Daisy walks out of her store, there is a 20 foot tall robot walker (picture this guy with four legs) in the street. One of the poker players is a robot, and when offered a job, Daisy clearly states, “I don’t work with machines.” No explanation is given – future, alternate history – but the differences fit seamlessly into the story and are immediately accepted by readers.

While Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet books are wonderful for middle elementary readers, I’d be sure to keep Daisy Kutter on the young adult shelves. A run-down cat house and a female acquaintance who lives there, a bit of colorful language, an old flame, and some gruesome shootout scenes make appearances. Nevertheless, The Last Train is an action packed, train robbing, saloon door swinging, Old West story. With a futuristic twist.

For more information about reading graphic novels, and to see where I was introduced to Daisy Kutter, I highly recommend this article.

Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi

Emily and Navin are moving. Unable to afford their home after her husband’s death, Karen has decided to move the family to a house that has been in the family for years. Unused and filthy, but paid for. In their cleaning attack, the kids end up in Great-Grandpa Silas’s library. Emily and Navin discover books and portraits and all variety of gadgets and inventions. Most importantly, Emily discovers an amulet necklace that attaches itself around her neck.

Someone…or something…in the library, however, also discovers them. A ghostly phantom escapes a heating duct. A shadowy creature observes the family’s activities.

That night, their first in the new house, the amulet awakens Emily and gives her a message. “Emily. Listen carefully. Your family is in danger. Stay with them. Keep them safe.” Safe from what, Emily wonders, but the amulet is silent once again. Later that night, mysterious noises draw the family’s attention. Mom is quick to investigate the origin in the basement, ordering the kids to stay upstairs. Emily obeys her mother, disregarding the amulet’s warning.

And Mom disappears.

Following her screams through a basement door, Emily and Navin find themselves in an alternate Earth, a world of odd creatures, and odd family secrets, including what happened to Great-Grandpa Silas. They meet Miskit, Ruby, Cogsley, and Morrie – a pink rabbit, vacuum cleaner (I think), and two robots, respectively. They also discover that Great-Grandpa Silas had somehow selected Emily to continue his work. She must choose: accept the amulet/stone and it’s power/risks/abilities/dangers, the chance to rescue her mother, and even the possibility of turning back time or simply turn it away.

The Stonekeeper begins with a prologue of the night Emily’s father died two years earlier. It is a brief account, but readers immediately feel the power of Kazu Kibuishi’s art. As the family drives to pick up Navin, there is an accident. The car crashes through a guard rail, flips, and slides down a steep, snowy embankment. It comes to rest against a tree on the edge of a cliff. Emily and her mother get out, but David’s legs are trapped under the dashboard. The car begins to slide, the tree gives way, and a husband and father is lost.

Immediately the prologue illustrates so clearly how graphic novels can quickly show what takes pages to describe in a traditional novel. Seeing David’s hand slowly slip out of Karen’s as the car shifts. Seeing Emily’s feet rise off the ground as she tries unsuccessfully to hold the tipping car down by its front bumper. Readers immediately know the desperation and heartbreak felt by the family. Kibuishi’s art continues to hold readers’ attention throughout this action packed book.