One Year at Ellsmere

Description

Was boarding school supposed to be this hard? When studious thirteen-year-old Juniper wins a scholarship to the prestigious Ellsmere Academy, she expects to find a scholastic utopia. But living at Ellsmere is far from ideal: She is labeled a "special project," Ellsmere's queen bee is out to destroy her, and it's rumored that a mythical beast roams the forest next to the school. With revamped art and now in full color, One Year at Ellsmere is an endearing-and surprising-middle-grade friendship story from beloved house author Faith Erin Hicks!

Faith Erin Hicks is a writer and artist in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her graphic novels include The Nameless City trilogy, Friends with Boys, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (with Prudence Shen), Pumpkinheads, and the Eisner Award-winning The Adventures of Superhero Girl. faitherinhicks.com

Hicks's varied panel sizes control pacing effectively, while her muted palette gives the castle-like school an archaic feel.--Horn Book Panels are broken out to capitalize on specific moments, creating a variety of impactful emotional beats: sardonic retorts, profound loneliness, smug satisfaction, and doe-eyed vulnerability. Previously published in black-and-white, this edition sports updated line art and solid color work by Shelli Paroline that subtly enhances Hicks's original art.--Publisher's Weekly