I found this story to be an overall exciting and exhilarating adventure, And I'm really interested to find out more about this world. And soon, the family discovers a small door in the basement of the house leading to an alternate version of earth known as 'Alledia'.Įmily has to decide if she wants to be the new stonekeeper after her great-grandfather passes away, and she agrees to take on her new responsibility. The locals believe that the house is haunted, yet Karen chooses to ignore the rumors. Two years after Emily’s father dies in a car accident, she moves with her mother, Karen, and Navin to a house that has been in the family for years. I look forward to continuing this story.Īmulet’s story is about a young girl named Emily (“Em”) and her younger brother, Navin. This first volume was a really great setup for the series and it gave me just enough of a taste of things to come that I put the rest on hold at the library right after I finished.

I think this would be a good segue if you're someone who's never read manga before, since this didn't feel wholly Japanese, but it also didn't feel completely Westernized either. I love the bunny robot character and I didn't find either child protagonist annoying or too whiny.īecause of the beginning, I wouldn't recommend this for really young readers there's a particularly harrowing scene that includes blood and death. Some of the character designs are odd I don't understand why the mother's head is so long and skinny, but the full-color illustrations and backgrounds are gorgeous. I liked the combination of steampunk-style additions, (robots, spaceships, rayguns and gadgets,) with classic fantasy characters, (like elves and other monsters.) That's something I haven't seen that often in middle grade books. There is still plenty of originality intermixed that I didn't feel like I was reading the same old, same old.

The story is a familiar one a magical object passed down in the family contains enough power to save the world, and a young girl is now tasked with making the right decisions to save those she loves.

Now, that's an accomplishment! I'll admit though, I'm a bit of a softy when it comes to moms or husbands dying, so your mileage may vary with that. Not very many novels, let alone a graphic novel, stir up a visible emotional response from me (for example: something might be funny but I'll rarely laugh out loud.) This book, however, made me cry within the first 15 pages.

Amulet 1 the stonekeeper