Chickenhare Volume 1: The House of Klaus (v. 1)
Grade 6 Up—Chickenhare is a hare with the feet and feathers of a chicken, and he and his turtle friend, Abe, are the valuable property of Klaus, a twisted taxidermist who has killed many of the animals in the surrounding area "for home decor purposes." They manage to escape along with two other prisoners and now Buttons, Klaus's beloved, deceased pet goat, wants to help them end his former owner's tyranny. A simple layout with clean lines and conventional paneling make this book suitable for young readers new to comics, but the dark humor is not. It can be quite gruesome: Klaus's house is filled with eerie displays of his taxidermy victims and, at the end of the story, victorious animals eat their human enemies. While the characters are quirky and likable, the story is resolved without much development on their part.Chickenhareowes an influence to Jeff Smith's "Bone" series (Scholastic) but lacks its complexity of plot and character, as well as its emotional depth. A second volume is forthcoming, however, so perhaps there is still room for the story to evolve.—Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.