Title: Amulet.
Volume: 1.
Story Arc: The Stonekeeper.
Writer(s): Kazu Kibuishi.
Illustrator(s): Kazu Kibuishi.
Publisher: Graphix.
Format: Paperback.
Release Date: January 1st, 2008.
Pages: 187.
Genre(s): Comics, Fantasy, Middle-Grade.
ISBN13: 9780439846813.
My Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆.
There’s a moment in your childhood where adult supervision is crucial to your development, where you need an authoritative figure to hand you over the rules that should serve as a guideline to your life. It’s through their education that you learn to understand the world in a certain way that allows you to grow as a person and to form an identity that will unconsciously follow you as you grow old. Sometimes, the absence of such a guardian can also be disconcerting but how you hop back into action with confidence and determination can change you forever. Planned as a trilogy of trilogies, the first book within the Amulet series, The Stonekeeper, is creator Kazu Kibuishi’s manifesto underlining his love for magic, imagination, and self-discovery.
What is Amulet: The Stonekeeper about? Two years after a tragic accident, Emily Hayes, her brother Navin and her mother Karen move to their great-grandfather Silas’s ancestral home in hopes of embracing a beautiful new life. While their mother sets them up into their new residence, Emily and her brother discover a stone amulet hidden within the household. Little did she know that it would speak to her, warning her of a grave danger looming around the corner, its claws set on their family. It is in the middle of the night that an abrupt sound wakes them up and sets them off looking for its source in the dark basement while their mother was nowhere to be found. What follows is the discovery of a brand-new world hidden within their new home that will launch them on a magical and whimsical adventure.
Juggling both a middle-grade and young-adult target audience, the story draws upon classic fantasy tropes to illustrate the courageous expedition of children into an unfamiliar territory filled with mystical beings and strange powers. While reminding the children of the tremendous responsibility that comes with powerful abilities, the story serves as an enchanting escapade immersing both the young protagonists and the readers into an unusual world. Where it especially struggles to stand on two feet is in its intent of being an introduction to the world rather than a full-fledged and self-contained story-arc. Inevitable in its nature, it, however, delivers exactly what it needs to hook the reader to this series, inciting them to discover more of the magical reality introduced here.
To capture the spellbinding qualities of the story, creator Kazu Kibuishi utilizes a unique and clever visual style. Expressive, colourful, round-edged, the artwork delivers an engaging vision that illustrates the subtlest moods that can be identified within the atmosphere. On top of fear and joy, there’s also a light eerieness that veils this story, allowing it to possess a certain thrilling edge without necessarily being horrifying despite certain tentacled creatures that appear within the story arc. The colours also heavenly alleviate the tone by softening the threat and danger in which bathes these characters. While the story and the artwork are appealing, their level of familiarity greatly reduces the overall originality of the volume.
Amulet: The Stonekeeper is a welcoming yet familiar fantasy adventure that follows the Hayes family into a realm of magic and mayhem.
Roars and Echoes 
Great review! I haven’t come across this or the author but then I don’t read near as many graphic novels as I would like.
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Thanks, Jules! It’s a nice entry point to comics for all ages to be honest. It’s all-around wonderful. 😀
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Several years ago a young boy at our old church told us about these. We told him we’d buy them for him if he kept coming to church (he was from a broken/blended family and it was a messy situation no matter how you looked at it). We were doing whatever we could to encourage him to read, as his biological father was giving him those really violent, almost pornographic videogames (he was 10 or 11). Sadly, he drifted away and I have no idea where he’s at now.
But Mrs B and I both read a couple to make sure it was appropriate to buy and enjoyed them. Not enough to buy them for ourselves though 😉
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Oh man, what a story. Who would’ve thought that this series would draw the attention of kids to that point. It’s nice deal you offered him though, despite him disappearing, leaving you with no clue what happened to him. Maybe life will allow you find out someday.
I’ll still give some of the next volumes a try to see if there’s something that really hooks me but for now it doesn’t stand out from the lot as much as I wish it did.
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Yea, it does feel familiar. I enjoyed the story and the illustrations too when I read it. Actually, I love the artwork more than the story but thought both were good.
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Hahah I remember your review for this one too. It helped a lot in bringing down my expectations for this one. I’ll probably try a couple of more volumes before quitting though. The artwork really is neat in this series! 😀
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Awesome! It’s def a good one for when you need something quick and fun and light.
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So….why three stars only Lashaan???
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I prefer originality over familiarity, Sophie! 😉
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Fab review!
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Thank you so much, Nicki! 😀
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Sounds like something I would have loved to read when I was younger. Good to hear that it is still engaging for adults. Too bad that it’s not a totally stand alone.
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Exactly. I would keep this on my list of MG/YA recommendation list.
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Very interesting review, as always, Lashaan! I find that in books that are targeted to a young-but-not-so-young audience (young adults or “old” teenagers) it is quite hard to have a good balance between the two “ages”. It can often feel too familiar or too serious, and having a perfect combination must be quite hard! Don’t know if this was very clear hahah, thanks for sharing your insight 😊
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Thank you so much, Juliette! It is indeed hard to be original and impress different target audiences, but the challenge is not impossible, which is why I felt like this one could achieve it and maybe it does the next volumes. 😂
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Yes of course, I hope it does too 😁
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That about sums up what I expected to think about Amulet. As an adult reader I do get tired of the introduction feel many stories exude. Throw us right in. We’ll build the world in our heads as we go. I’m honestly not a fan of the art. I like the look of manga too much to enjoy this but I’m sure kids love it especially because of the color, and I loved your thoughts about why these colors. Will you continue the series?
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Yep. It feels like it would’ve needed a couple of more chapters to make it really stand out but… it still remains an excellent entry point for many young readers, I think. Ohhh, that’s interesting! I didn’t expect anyone to dislike the artwork hahaha but I can understand what you mean. This one aims to do something in-between cartoons and manga instead of assuming one or the other. I’ll try and continue the series but I still need to get my hands on volume 2 hahah 😀
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