Hereville

Starred review from August 2, 2010
Spunky Mirka wants to be a dragon-slayer, but everyone in the small Orthodox Jewish community of Hereville is against it. When a witch and a talking pig turn up in the woods near home, Mirka can’t help getting involved, much to the dismay of her seven sisters, brother, and argumentative stepmother. The book brings new material to the original Web comic, completed in 2008, allowing Deutsch to make a great comic even better. His expressive, surprising drawings give life to Mirka’s quest and to the unusual and genuine relationships she has with family members and magical creatures. Deutsch weaves in information about Shabbos, phrases in Yiddish (translated at the bottom of the page), illustrations of the different looks (rebel, pious, popular) girls create with the white shirts and long black skirts they wear—and all of it is lively and engaging. Fantastical elements mesh perfectly with the deep emotional heart of Mirka’s story. “I live in the family your mother made, surrounded by her children and under her roof,” Mirka’s intelligent, prickly, loving stepmother tells her, in one poignant scene. This is a terrific story, told with skill and lots of heart, that readers of all ages will enjoy. Ages 8–12.

October 1, 2015
After previously battling a troll and then a meteorite, fearless, stubborn Mirka returns for a third outing, this time to save her family from a vengeful magical fish. Rather than battling monsters, precocious Mirka, a young Orthodox Jewish girl living in a large blended family, is told that she must spend a day babysitting her stepsister Layele. Determined to eke out some excitement, Mirka takes her charge into the woods that, only moments earlier, her stepmother, Fruma, had warned her about. In the woods, Mirka and Layele encounter her old opponent, the troll, who gives Mirka a hairband that allows her to see the past. With it, she learns that Fruma had made a deal with a very tricky, wish-granting fish but left her trapped in a lake for eternity. Naturally, the girls happen upon the fish, and she tricks young Layele into bringing her home, determined to exact her revenge upon Fruma. This time, Mirka must fight a battle without weapons and confront the vindictive fish with new weapons: kindness and logic. Deutsch has created a wonderfully inventive world in which fantastic creatures believably reside alongside a religious community; Mirka is a delightfully flawed heroine that nearly anyone can relate to and enjoy. Backgrounder Wallace and colorist Richmond augment Deutsch's busy panels, providing a pleasingly earth-toned setting for Mirka's latest adventure. This consistently clever and thoughtful series hasn't lost a particle of momentum. (Graphic fantasy. 8-13)

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January 1, 2016

Gr 4-6-In a third adventure in the Orthodox community of Hereville, Mirka learns more about her stepmother when she meets a magic fish whose powers are held in check by a wish Fruma made when she was a teenager. The fish takes Mirka's stepsister, Layele, hostage, making Mirka the "worst babysitter ever." A mix of humor and drama, with plenty of suspenseful chases and battles, this is an enjoyable and absorbing read. Cartoon-style illustrations with bold, clear lines and a limited color palette highlight Deutsch's deft use of the comics medium. At one point Layele, enchanted by the magic fish, dissolves into a school of fish that bombard Mirka with statements reflecting her conflicted feelings about their relationship. Dynamic paneling heightens the action and emotion in many scenes. In one, Fruma transforms into a giant redwood. A close-up of Mirka's shocked face is layered over smaller panels sequencing the transformation. On the next page, panels bleed into a wide view of Mirka running to the rescue. This sophistication and subtlety extend to the depiction of Mirka's relationships, particularly the push and pull with her stepmother. Fruma is argumentative and unsentimental, but she is a reliable and caring adult in Mirka's life. This stand-alone volume should appeal to readers of other graphic novels starring plucky female characters such as Raina Telgemeier's Sisters (Scholastic, 2014) and Vera Brosgol's Anya's Ghost (Square Fish, 2014), as well as fans of humorous adventures such as Jeff Smith's "Bone" series (Scholastic) and Shannon Hale's Rapunzel's Revenge (Bloomsbury, 2008). VERDICT An entertaining graphic novel adventure in which Mirka learns more about herself and her family relationships.-Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 24, 2012
Eleven-year-old Mirka Herschberg is as disheveled, prickly, competitive, and impulsive as ever in this companion to Deutsch's Hereville (2010). She's both a fish out of water (she dreams of being a sword-wielding dragon slayer) and committed to her Orthodox Jewish faith, family, and community. All of this makes her one of the most original and comically endearing heroines to come down the pike in a long time. The meteorite in the title is actually an alien life formâdubbed "Metty"âthat becomes Mirka's reverse doppelganger: a too-good-to-be true twin who's not only neater, defter at dispatching bullies, and better at basketball than Mirka, but also determined to permanently displace her. With unexpectedly effective help from Mirka's family (who are savvier and more accepting than Mirka realizes), her messy personality triumphs over perfection. The drably handsome olive and peach palette provides visual cohesionâan anchor that allows Deutsch's extravagantly chronicled emotions to fly highâwhile simultaneously making the story's extraterrestrial elements and scenes (colored in bold yellows and blues) all the more magical and alien by contrast. Ages 8â12. Agent: Judith Hansen, Hansen Literary Agency.

Starred review from November 1, 2015
Mirka is stuck babysitting her pesky six-year-old half-sister Layele while the rest of the family is away from their all-Hasidic community. Fruma, Mirka's stepmother, leaves strict orders to stay out of the woods, where bizarre magic always seems to happen (Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, rev. 11/10; Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite, rev. 11/12) and where Fruma saw things when she was Mirka's age. Of course, Mirka does go into the woods, dragging Layele with her, and before long she's wheedled the troll from the first book out of a hair elastic with time-travel capabilities (the illustrations denote the time travelers by superimposing them onto the landscape in transparent purple and white). The girls encounter a wishing fish, the same one who lost a battle of wits with a young Fruma (then called Fran and dressed in modern garb) and who now has a wicked plan to gain power by controlling and kidnapping Layele. Though the expressive and often humorous illustrations in this graphic novel do much to convey each scene's tone and highlight important characters and objects, words make the world go 'round here. (Check out Mirka's punctuation-marked skirt!) Speech bubbles wind in and out of the variably sized panels, and the eventual solution involves verbal gymnastics as much as heroics and compassion. shoshana flax

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2016
In this third book, Hasidic Jew Mirka and pesky six-year-old half-sister Layele go into the woods, where bizarre magic always seems to happen. The girls encounter a wishing fish with a wicked plan to gain power by kidnapping Layele. Speech bubbles wind in and out of variably sized panels, and the eventual solution involves verbal gymnastics as much as heroics and compassion.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)