This Was Our Pact
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- £7.49
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- £7.49
Publisher Description
A magical-realist adventure following two boys on a daring night-time quest, perfect for fans of quirky graphic novels.
Winner of the 2019 Booklist Editor's Choice, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, and Parents Magazine Best Children's Books of the Year.
On the night of the annual Autumn Equinox Festival, the town gathers to float paper lanterns down the river. Legend says they'll soar off to the Milky Way and turn into brilliant stars, but could that be true? This year, Ben and his classmates make a pact to find out, with two rules: No one turns for home. No one looks back.
Together, Ben and Nathaniel, the quirky kid who doesn't seem to fit in, travel farther than anyone has gone before. Down a winding road full of magic, wonder, unexpected friendship... and a talking bear.
Join them on an astonishing journey in This Was Our Pact, a whimsical graphic novel perfect for middle-grade readers and anyone who believes in the power of friendship and wonder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Creepy yet benign, this leisurely graphic novel opens on the autumn equinox, when a community sends paper lanterns down a river. Five boys and a bullied tagalong science fanatic named Nathaniel make a pact to find out where the lanterns go. They pedal their bikes along a deserted road, but the vow proves daunting, and Nathaniel and the narrator, Ben, are soon alone on a bridge at the edge of town. They pledge to soldier on, unaware of a hulking shadow creature that rises from the river below. Ben approaches their subsequent adventures with trepidation, while Nathaniel greets every vertiginous cliff and bottomless lake with a gleeful grin. They take up with a fellow traveler, a stylish anthropomorphic bear who seeks to catch the floating lights, which are rumored to turn into fish en route to the stars. Andrews (Nothing Is Forgotten for adults) crafts a phantasmagoria of events that recall animation from Studio Ghibli and Cartoon Saloon. Scenes unfold beneath the Milky Way in twilit dark-blue and charcoal-gray panels, while flashbacks and industrial interiors in glowing ember hues amplify a simmering sense of threat. Picaresque episodes and a dreamlike resolution conjure a giddy sensation, like staying up all night. Ages 10 14.
