Dracula
Though not as revelatory as Beowulf: A Tale of Blood, Heat, and Ashes (2007), Raven again successfully abridges a vaunted classic. His Count Dracula is mostly a noncharacter—a blond-haired presence who utters but a few lines of dialogue. Bucking current trends, the focus is instead on the friends who band together to take out the vampire. Raven does a great job fleshing out characters that even in Stoker's original felt bloodless; blokes like Holmwood and Seward finally hold their own against the likes of Van Helsing (depicted as a head-shaved and bespectacled badass). The choice to abandon Stoker's dependence on journal entries is a smart one; in fact, the two times Raven employs the device, the font makes for uncomfortable reading. Gilbert's gothic drawings, the crosshatches of which often conceal layers of spooky elements, are a perfect fit for the somber tone. Today's teens will be hard-pressed to gasp at bat transformations and missing reflections, but this will certainly whet appetites for the full Bram—and in fewer than 100 pages. Grades 5-8. --Daniel Kraus