I picked this up at the library, thinking of a student I once taught. His parents were traveling medieval reenactors. He was one of the brightest, most creative students I ever taught. He was also a bit of a pill - he once turned in a 5-page essay written in 74-point font, pointing out that I hadn't specified 12-point Times New Roman on the assignment. He was a great kid, kind, responsible, his vocabulary was incredible, and he credited it all to his amazing parents -- and he was in 7th grade!
This book, similarly, did not disappoint. It captured 7th grade and 7th graders perfectly!
If you've read my reviews of graphic novels, I tend to read the end and not go back to the beginning, which is why I don't read many. But what hooked me on this one (the MC does some not-very-nice things and she trudges a long road to get back into the reader's good graces -- as well as those of her parents, brother and friends), were the single-page fairy tale-ish beginnings of each chapter.
It was a great read, and an interesting peek into a way of life that most of us will never experience, except as paying tourists.
Then I discovered these two books, where a Renaissance Festival and 7th grade are also central to the story. Enter the town of Ingott, where, unlike the rest of the world, someone's drawn a circle of copper around the town to keep out the dead. Ghosts of the dead, anyway. The MC, a ghost appeasement specialist, and her friend, a squire to his father, Sir Dad, in the town's summer Renaissance Festival, must find a way to break the circle at the start of the Festival without killing all the town's inhabitants and tourists, in the resulting crush of spirits.
In the second book, the ghosts have to duke it out -- the medieval ones vs. the town's miners, who died in droves mining the copper that held them out for so long. Again, the Renaissance Festival is key -- but I won't spoil how.
