Brownstone's Mythical Collection: Arthur and the Golden Rope by Joe Todd-Stanton

The Brownstone family vault is full of mysterious, magical artifacts and Professor Brownstone is here to introduce readers to his family's history, starting with the very first Brownstone adventure.

Arthur is an odd child living in a small, isolated town in the mountains of Iceland. To the amusement and annoyance of his family and the townspeople, he befriends the strange and magical folk he finds and collects magical artifacts from his new friends. But one day a giant black wolf attacks the town. The fire is put out and the bravest warriors of the town are injured. Despite the anger and disparagement of the townspeople, Arthur decides to set off on his own and follow the hints of their wise woman, seeking Thor to relight their fire. But the journey is long and dangerous and his adventures don't end when he finally finds Thor.

This isn't a typical graphic novel, more of an illustrated story. The story is told with rectangular panels of art and chunks of text. The panel edges are loosely defined and while the layout is clear it doesn't have the traditional progression of a story told in panels. The illustrations are finely detailed; runes, tiny goblins, sea serpents, and more dot the pages. There isn't a lot of emotion or movement in the faces of the characters, but the story is more of a legend than a novel. One can see finding this in an ancient scroll or the walls of a cave and watching the story unfold.

Verdict: While this won't have the broad appeal of the more cinematic titles like Bone or Amulet, fans of Flying Eye's other publications and readers who like rich, detailed stories will devour it eagerly and be impatient for the next chapter in the story of the Brownstone's adventures.

ISBN: 9781911171034; Published 2016 by Flying Eye; Borrowed from another library in my consortium