Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures
Illustrator: J. Bone
Graphic Novel
For ages 8 to 11
Tundra Books, 2010 ISBN: 978-0887769344
Alison Dare has a very unusual family. Her mother is a world famous archeologist, and her father is a librarian who is secretly the Blue Scarab, an honest to goodness super-hero. Most of the time Alison is in school, but every so often she gets to go on special trips with her mother, Dr. Alice Dare.
In the first adventure in this collection, Alison is on an expedition with her mother in the Sultanate of Shahrazad and she is bored to tears. Alison’s mother is busy working so Alison decides to take a peek at some of the things her mother has stashed on one of the tents. Inside a crate she finds a lamp which she rubs, thus summoning a genie. Alison knows that she has three wishes - as per tradition - and her first wish is to summon her friends Wendy and Dot. The girls are not, for some bizarre reason, delighted to be whisked away from the lives to join Alison in an adventure. They do warm up to the idea though when Alison accidentally summons 1001 knights. The knights lavish Alison and the girls with lovely clothes, fantastic foods, and other delights. Things are looking up, until the knights decide that Alison’s mother is an “interloper” who should be removed.
In the second adventure we find out how Alison’s parents met and how her father, who was a scholarly librarian, was turned into the Blue Scarab, a superhero with all kinds of fantastic powers.
Finally, there is the story of “Alison Dare and the mummy child.” In this thrilling adventure, Alison goes to the museum to see her mother’s new exhibit and to set up a family picnic there – she is hoping to bring her estranged parents together. Instead Alison finds herself in a power struggle between her parents and Baron Von Baron, a ‘bad guy’ who wants to take over the world (isn’t that what most of them want to do?).
Readers who like an exciting story that is full of evil doers, superheroes, and a sprinkling of magic and archeology, will greatly enjoy this book. With tongue-in-cheek jokes and completely outrageous plots, the three stories in this book are highly entertaining and enjoyable.
