Amulet

Amulet is a new series by Kazu Kibuishi. Kibuishi has credentials as his book Daisy Kutter: The Last Train won the American Library Associations Best Book Award for Young Adults. He continues in the tradition with Amulet: The Stonekeeper and now just released in September 2009, book 2, The Stonekeepers Curse. However the Amulet books are for young readers ages 8 and up. The main characters are a brother, sister, and mom along with the robot rabbit who join the struggle between good and evil. Amulet: The Stonekeeper was nominated for a 2009 Eisner Award for Best Kids Publication. The Eisner award is considered to be the Oscar of the comic world.

The books are in the comic format somewhat in the manga style, but with Lemony Snicket overtones in the story. The art is in color and read from front to back. The first book started immediately with the death of the children's father which may be a little harsh for younger readers. They find a spooky place to live and the adventures begin. There is a future book 3 in the planning stage. Amulet is published by Graphix which is an imprint of Scholastic. These are available in paperback and hardbound, but not library bound. Scholastic is known by librarians for poor quality binding on their hardbound books, Harry Potter, being the utmost example. If you are interested, you would be just as well to try paperback. Surprisingly, the Bone series also by Graphix is produced in fairly sturdy form in paperback.