Bera the one-headed troll by Eric Orchard

Bera lives a peaceful and quiet life on her tiny island, accompanied by her friend Winslowe the owl. There she grows pumpkins for the troll royal family and is content. But then one day she finds a strange creature...a human baby! Where did it come from? What will she do with it?

Bera isn't used to dealing with complicated problems like this and the small creature is rather gross, but she can't just hand him over to the evil witch so she does on a quest to find his family. One by one she meets her heroes, the great trolls and heroes of legend, and one by one discovers that there's both more and less to them than she read in her books.

Orchard's dark and quirky illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to this odd and often gruesome story. Goblins, trolls, rats, and wolves populate the earth-hued pages in oranges, browns, and swamp greens.

Verdict: Fans of Deb Lucke's Lunch Witch will like this quirky, dark story but it probably will not have the wide appeal of, say, Kibuishi's Amulet series. Buy if you're looking for more graphic novels.

ISBN: 9781626721067; Published 2016 by First Second; Borrowed from another library in my consortium