Potential pop stars sparkle in this intense series starter.
A Japanese teen auditions for a highly competitive musical group.
Hikaru, 14, sings while cleaning her family’s bathhouse—the high walls’ acoustics are perfect, and the elderly audience members are an encouraging bunch, even if they keep requesting American oldies. But she wonders if there’s more to life; for the past few years, her good friend Ran has been performing in a highly produced pop band. Ran shows up one night, declaring that she quit the group and that she wants to audition for a new ensemble being formed by a world-famous producer—and she hopes Hikaru will join her. Hikaru agrees, and the two dive straight into the rigorous competition together. Hikaru’s central struggle proves her greatest gift; she’s an amateur who performs with a mop instead of a mike, but she sings with her whole heart, captivating both the judges and her fellow contestants. Meanwhile, Ran wants to reinvent herself and prove she’s more than just a pretty face. This manga, originally published in Japan, focuses on the competition’s stages and personalities; the closest U.S. analogue is musical competition shows like The Voice, though this story has more grit than gloss. Full-color illustrations capture, with equal charm, Tokyo street scenes and idols sparkling onstage. Hikaru’s hyperexpressive face conveys a broad range of emotions, making her big eyes look even bigger; she’s a comedic, sympathetic central character.
Potential pop stars sparkle in this intense series starter. (Graphic fiction. 9-15)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781546140986
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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