Lumberjackula
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
For fans of The Okay Witch and Fake Blood, this hilarious middle grade graphic novel follows a half-vampire, half-lumberjack boy who feels torn between his parents and just wants to be a dancer.
Jack is in a pickle. His lumberjack mom wants him to go to Mighty Log Lumberjack Prep to learn how to chop wood and wear flannel. His vampire dad wants him to go to Sorrow’s Gloom Vampire School to learn how to turn into a bat and drink blood-orange juice. And Jack has a secret: what he really wants to do is dance.
When he finds out about Tip Tap Twinkle Toes Dance Academy from new friend Plenty, Jack feels he’s finally found the place where he can be his true self. But he’s too afraid of disappointing his family to tell them. What’s a half-lumberjack, half-vampire boy to do?
To summon the confidence to pursue his dreams, Jack will have to embrace every part of himself—his lumberjack toughness, his vampire eeriness, and most especially his awesome dance moves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an earnest graphic novel about embracing one's true self, 11-and-a-half-year-old Lumberjackula, who has teal skin and sports a red flannel, agonizes about choosing between a perceived either/or around his half-lumberjack, half-vampire heritage. Lumberjacks and vampires peacefully coexist in Hollow Tree, but they largely lead separate lives. After finishing their combined early schooling, flannel-clad lumberjack children of various skin tones attend Mighty Log Lumberjack Prep to learn wood splitting and logrolling, while cloaked, blue-skinned vampires study hypnosis and flight at Sorrow's Gloom Vampire Academy. Though Jack's supportive parents say that the choice of school is up to him, he's aware of both family legacies and doesn't feel like he fits in at either place. When an enthusiastic performer from nearby Branchborough sees Jack dance, and encourages him to enroll at Tip Tap Twinkle Toes Dance Academy, the idea opens up new anxieties—and refreshing options. In rounded lines and subdued colors, Owen's cartoon art renders the friendly world with winning details, including dance-party interstitials that show Jack working through his feelings. Heagerty (Martian Ghost Centaur) refreshingly keeps the conflict focused on Jack's internal insecurities in this good-natured slice-of-life story that wields familiar tropes to laud embracing myriad intersections of identity. Ages 8–12.
