Middle Schooler by Day. Monster Hunter by (K)night.In this action-packed and hilarious contemporary graphic novel retelling of Don Quixote, a young girl in Texas is obsessed with becoming a modern-day knight and thwarting supernatural evil—for fans of Mighty Jack, Zita the Spacegirl and Amulet.
“Folklore, fun, and adventure at its best.” —Max Brallier, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Last Kids on Earth
Lucia Castillo dreams of being a hero like her grandfather. But to the people in their Texas town, he was just a strange old man who dressed up as a knight and claimed to save the world from monsters only he could see.
Now years later, when Lucia and her best friend—and trusty squire—Sandro discover the town mayor is secretly a shapeshifting beast of Mexican lore, her parents think she’s imagining things like her “Abuelo Loco.” Only Lucia, wearing her grandfather’s magical helmet, can see the hidden threat. Can she and Sandro prove others wrong and stop the mayor from unleashing evil on their town—and beyond?
I got an ARC copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. When I first saw this pop up I got so excited. Back in Uni we covered Don Quixote in my Western Lit class. It was my first experience with that piece of literature and I immediately fell in love. So when I saw this I knew I had to read it. It was the cutest story. The illustrations were amazing as well. I love the Don Quixote reference. Lucia is an adorable young girl just wanting to be just like her abuelo and help rid the world of evil by being a strong knight. Sadly others did not see it the same way she did. Except for her trusty sidekick, and best friend, Sandro. I love Sandro. I think he was my favorite character in the story.
This graphic novel is definitely geared for young children/young middle grade. Only thing some might struggle with is the Spanish throughout the story. I am not fluent in Spanish but was able to get a gist of what was going on when a character spoke their part in Spanish. With this being a story with lots of Mexican culture and families in it it made sense to keep their native language mixed into the story line.
As someone who is a lover of cryptid/mythical creatures this graphic novel was great. It taught me about a lot of legends and folklore from Mexican culture and that got me wanting to research and read more into some of these stories I was unaware of. I think this would be a great book to read to your class and to have fun learning about all the different legends and folklore.
I also loved that the author added a little background of himself at the end of the book. How he came about writing this story. As a young child he would watch a TV show called Don Coyote and Sancho Panda (I need to check out this show). His Abuela took him to the library to learn all about the story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I love that he took that from his childhood and turned it into this story.
This graphic novel is set to be published in Sept 2023.
Rating:
Adventures Between Pages 
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