I Keep six honest serving-men:
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

She sends ‘em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes–
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

Kipling’s fables remind me of Greek and Roman myths, which ancient peoples used to explain why things in our world were the way they are (the myth of Arachne explained why spiders weave webs) and why other things occurred (earthquakes happened when Poseidon was angry). “The Elephant Child” tells the tale of how elephants got their long, and very useful, trunks, because in the “Far-Off Times the Elephant . . . had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot.”

Of course, with any retelling, I had to take some liberties, not just to fit the story into the publisher’s prescribed format (15 spreads of story), but also due to modern sensibilities. There’s a lot of spanking going on in Kipling’s story. While I didn’t want to detour too far from his original telling, I also didn’t want to condone corporal punishment. Hopefully, the illustrator can carry off the subtle way in which I chose to tackle the issue.

Spotlight Striker

Carlos’s uncle, a professional soccer player will be watching Carlos play. Normally, Carlos has nerves of steel and lightning fast reflexes, but playing in front of his super-skilled uncle has him tripping over his own two feet.

Cosmic Bounty Hunter

Summary: Intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo has a new job. The evil aliens Kalibak and Desaad have hired him to capture Superman — dead or alive! When Lobo finally wrangles with the Man of Steel, the aliens aren’t far behind. They don’t trust Lobo, however, and trap him beneath of force field with Superman. Lobo and the Man of Steel must set aside their differences in order to escape or be imprisoned forever.

So, when I was asked if I’d like to take on this writing assignment, curiosity drove me to accept it. How ironic. The Elephant Child is “full of ’satiable curiosity!” Just like me. Though, unlike the Elephant Child, I now sate my questioning nature by looking up answers on the Internet instead of asking a stream of questions of my mom and uncles and aunts.

Upon seeing the character sketches for the first time, I noticed that Sebastian Facio, the illustrator, had drawn Tina holding a digital notepad. I initially had imagined her carrying around one of those small, flip notepads that we often see detectives on TV shows using, but had left that exact detail out when writing up character descriptions.

I liked what Sebastian had added, an element of modernness. After all, Keely uses a digital camera and Gillian has an wireless microphone. So I asked the editor if I could quick tweak the story to include the digital notepad. It was a nice touch. Kudos to Sebastian!

“Stone Arch has put its best foot forward with this new line of graphic novel adaptations of fairy tales, books that succeed on every front . . . The translations are also strong, with natural word choice and dialogue that pays attention to the nuances of class as the poor and the wealthy speak to one another.

With these stylish new fairy tale adaptations, Stone Arch has reset the standard.”
—Teacher Librarian magazine

Eek and Ack vs the Wolfman

Liverwire

The list actually refers to the whole Eek and Ack series (a reason to put out a sixth book?) and all of Stone Arch’s DC Super Heroes series (but nice that the cover of one of books was used :).

As one of the four hero myth tales being retold by Stone Arch’s Graphic Revolve series, this adaptation succeeds fairly well. The story does not feel shortened drastically at any given point. The pacing flows nicely from one part of the adventure to the next. As with the others in the series, the text is written at a third grade level encouraging a wider audience for this title. The artwork has many memorable panels; in particular, Medusa’s stone garden was both horrific and wonderfully detailed. The character designs would be at home in a role playing fantasy video game. Upper elementary and junior high readers who enjoy mythology or the recent Percy Jackson and the Olympians series will eagerly grab this graphic novel.

—VOYA

Working Title: Swamp Sting

Summary: There’s been a rash of bee stings on the school playground, and Tina, Keely, and Gillian are out to scoop the story for The Elementary Angle. But has their search for the cause progresses, the mystery thickens. They discover that someone’s been dumping toxic goo in the pond next to the schoolyard, and it’s causing to bees to grow one-hundred times larger than normal.