Wow! I’ve had my eye on Kerry and the Knight of the Forest for a while and I’m glad I finally got the chance to read this with my daughter.

Kerry and the Knight of the Forest is a fantastic adventure for middle-grade readers, packed with memorable characters, dynamic illustrations, and spectacular adventures.

It was the artwork and hand-lettered cover that initially drew me to this book.

Just thumbing through the pages produces a delightful display of palettes, textures, and characters. The wandering nature of the story and unique characters and situations reminds me of Matt Forsythe’s Ojingogo and Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, as well as Chris Mostyn’s strange and endearing Gob comics.

Aren’t those pages just a joy to read? I love all the design work that has gone into creating such a simple, seamless, adventurous story. (I should mention that Andi Watson is also the creator of The Book Tour—another graphic novel, but this time a brooding, mysterious dark comedy for older readers , which I also enjoyed.)

And look—PROCESS PAGES IN THE BACK!

If you’re interesting in learning how to write and draw your own comics, check out my book Let’s Make Comics! An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons.

A light-hearted interactive guide to comics and cartoon-making that uses an activity book format and creatively stimulating prompts to teach the fundamentals of cartooning in a fun and easy-to-follow fashion.

From a working cartoonist and comic book making instructor, this all-ages activity book uses humorous and informative one-page comics and exercise prompts to guide young readers (and readers who are young at heart) through easy-to-master lessons on the skills needed to make comics.

The activities cover a range of essential comics-making tasks from creating expressions for characters to filling in blank panels to creating original characters and placing them in adventures of their own. Each exercise can stand on its own or work together with others in the book to stimulate creativity via the comics medium.

In the end, readers who complete the activities inside the book itself will have created several comics of their own, and will have generated many ideas for more sequential art creations.

If you’d like to read my next graphic novel for FREE and before it’s published, sign up for my First Readers Club here.