The Unsinkable Walker Bean was such a fun read! Full of wonderful illustrations, plucky characters, and a family feud spanning generations. This book contained a lot of adventure, a lot of intrigue, and a good friendship dynamic.
Since this is the second book in a series, I would recommend reading the first book, as the story opens with Walker and his friends apparently shipwrecked on some island after a previous quest in which they seem to have lost a friend. Although Walker Bean is a graphic novel, it reminded me a little bit of the Hardy Boys, with perhaps a bit younger cast and a dash of steampunk magic thrown in. A fun read for boys and girls both!
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by First Second Books
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 1 mild obscenity.
Violence/Gore: Depiction of past violence and dangerous situations; a storms springs up and a character loses his hat and falls off a pier into the ocean; characters go to a fortune-teller; a woman reaches for a knife; implication of future violence; a character seems to be afraid of something; a characters hits his hand with a hammer; characters argue; a man fires a gun at a boy but misses; a character has a bad dreams; a character is reported to have slept-walked and beat up her friends; depiction of a character spreading falsehoods about death and capture of a “scourge of the sea” in order to incite a war; an old soldier is fired; a character is threatened with a sword; in an extended scene, characters follow a shadow creature and come across a spooky cave, they are swarmed by bats, one character reports the history of witches and a civilization wiped out, a king ruling his people with fear, and report of a man slaughtering people to create the shadow creatures; a character scares another character; report of past traumatic event and the destruction of a city and the death of a friend; in an extended scene, characters try to rob someone, and there is a report of a storm and characters getting swept into an island where they’re killed; a character has a gun; characters are caught in a sudden violent storm; a character is discovered missing; characters are menaced by others and a boy bites someone’s finger; a character is snatched by shadow creatures; characters are pursued and shot at by others; a boy has a bad dream; characters have a vision of people battling and dying, with characters dying and eerie monsters rising up to fight stone giants; characters are taken by shadow creatures; report of a family trying to exterminate another family; implication of violence; a boy searches for his missing friends; characters are to be killed; characters are imprisoned and shackled; report of a character getting killed and yet coming back; implication of violence between families; a character accuses someone of kidnapping her friends; characters see an apparent firestorm; a boat is apparently swamped and two characters are whisked away; a character is threatened with a knife; a girl bites a woman’s hand; a girl kicks a woman in the face; report of characters being dead; a character is given a sword for self-defense; report of a character murdering the descendants of a murderous family; a character messes with magic and brings an old temple down; characters are swept into a lake; a character is accosted by shadow creatures; characters see scenes of past violence and destructions.
Sex/Nudity: A man recalls meeting a woman; a character pees; a character strips to his shorts to cross a river; report of someone imagining his true love; a boy bends over, revealing his intergluteal cleft; a girl is the daughter of a maid.
Mature Subject Matter:
Palm-reading; Death of family members; Threat of war; Abandonment; Family feuds.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
A man is drunk; a woman pours grog onto an injury; a man drinks liquor.
