Robin: To Kill a Bird
Gr. 8-11. Tim Drake, Batman's third official Robin, sheds his prepubescent baggage in this fantasy about competence and self-sufficiency in which Robin faces assassins sent after him by the Penguin and deals with his status as orphan in the wake of his father's death. Tim is a skilled martial artist and an experienced strategist and hacker, who even Batman allows is "smarter than me." Robin fights his many battles with steadfast energy, but the engaging drama is left mainly to the supporting cast here, and the inventiveness is spent on new characters rather than familiar ones. Themanga-influenced art is flashy and energetic, though sometimes to the point of abstraction.Jesse KarpCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved